Oath of Rebellion
by Solid Shark
Summary: Tired of spending a life studying to reach an empty future, Asuna enters Sword Art Online, a world of swords and airships, to gain some measure of freedom. When she is trapped, she throws herself into building a new life for herself, as far from what her parents intended as she can. Meeting a dark swordsman sets her on a new course, in Aincrad's skies...
1. Chapter I: I Died Today

**Chapter I: "I Died Today"**

* * *

November 6th, 2032

* * *

There was a kind of forbidden thrill to running her fingers over the smooth, blue polymer. The helmet, with its blocky logo and simple trio of system lights, represented something completely outside her experience. Something she absolutely wasn't allowed to do—but was doing anyway.

Sitting in the desk chair in her bedroom, Yuuki Asuna felt a confused rush of worry, guilt, and excitement. The NerveGear she held in her hands was something of which her mother would never have approved, and she knew it. Yet it represented a kind of freedom she'd never known in her life, one just moments away.

"Okay, Asuna," her brother Kouichirou said, backing out from under her desk. "It's connected to the house network. I doubt Mother will even notice, if you're careful… Here." He picked up the case sitting on the desk, pulled out the ROM unit, and held it out to her. "All you need to do now is put it in, and put the NerveGear on."

"Thanks, Nii-san." Taking the ROM, Asuna carefully inserted the game into the appropriate port. She'd never handled a NerveGear before at all, but she'd done her research well, since the day Kouichirou's talk with their father had gotten her attention. From the moment she'd learned of Full-Dive, it had been eating at her, and if she still didn't understand all the little details, she thought she knew enough to get started.

Dusting off his knees, her brother smiled ruefully. "I never thought you'd get to try it before I did, Asuna. I guess that's the breaks of business… Be careful, okay? If Mother finds out…"

"I know, Nii-san." She knew all too well how Yuuki Kyouko was likely to react, if she knew what Asuna was planning. Fortunately, their mother kept herself to as rigid a schedule as her children, giving Asuna at least something of a safety margin. "Don't worry. There's supposed to be an alarm function in-game, right? I'll set it as soon as I'm in."

"Good." Kouichirou patted her on the shoulder. "In that case, I'd better get going. Stupid day for a business meeting… Have fun, Asuna." Heading for her door, he paused just before opening it. "Try not to get _too_ far ahead of me, okay? I want to party with you in-game when I do have time!"

Asuna giggled. "No promises! …Though you'll catch up to me quick, anyway." Settling the blue helmet over her head, she turned a more serious look on her brother. "Nii-san? Thank you."

He gave her a serious smile in return. "'Least I could do, Asuna. I could tell you needed it. …See you soon."

When Kouichirou had gone—and safely closed the door behind him—Asuna leaned back in her chair. From what she'd read, it was best to be in a reclining position, going into Full-Dive. She wasn't going to take any chances on her first time. Which, if she wasn't mistaken, was going to be in just a few moments.

As she fastened the NerveGear's chinstrap, the clock on its thin visor was crawling forward. Just when she'd settled in, it ticked over to **[13:00]**, and Asuna took a deep breath to steady herself against the adrenaline flooding her veins. This was it, her first little act of rebellion.

"Link Start!"

* * *

Pure darkness. Absolute silence. If she hadn't still been able to feel the chair beneath her and the NerveGear on her head, Asuna would've panicked. Even knowing from her brother's comments that it was coming, the sudden sensory deprivation was still a shock.

It only lasted a second, even if it felt longer. A rainbow appeared in her vision, first fuzzy then gradually growing sharper. Against that backdrop, a **[NERVEGEAR]** logo formed out of nothingness. A few moments more, and **[Visual Connection OK]** appeared below the logo.

A strange pattern of sounds followed, some recognizable as a simple scale, others completely alien. All of them were fuzzy and distorted. Gradually, though, they settled into a harmonious melody, and another line of text appeared in her vision: **[Auditory Nerve Connection OK]**.

The sensation of her chair disappeared right after that, leaving Asuna feeling as if she were floating. The music, logo, and status messages kept her grounded—but if anyone had asked, she would've readily admitted it was unsettling.

After touch and the genuinely disturbing taste connection checks, not to mention the indescribable smell test, all sensory connections were apparently **[OK]**. Then Asuna was falling forward, into that rainbow, in one of the most dizzying experiences of her life.

She landed in a white room, with a display that reminded her for all the world of a clothes shopping app. The variety of sliders for determining the body type of her avatar was frankly bewildering, and after some quick poking she gave up, settling for setting the body's height to match her real body. That and a quick change of hair and eye color, whimsically choosing a deep blue, was good enough for her. The face wasn't too bad, she thought, and if she changed her mind she was sure she'd be able to edit it when she understood the system better.

Asuna found herself frowning at the limited clothing options available. She knew she'd seen more of a variety in screenshots… Only with difficulty did she stop herself from facepalming, remembering belatedly that in a game like this, most options were probably obtained through actively playing it.

_Fine, then._ A simple hooded cloak was all she bothered to add to the default, reasoning that like the body she could change it later. She didn't want to spend too long building her character, anyway, not if she wanted time to experience the game the first day.

The last step, she found puzzling. A Romanji keyboard and text field replaced the avatar, with a simple prompt. _A name? Shouldn't it already have that from my account registration? Well, whatever._

Shrugging, she simply typed in **[Asuna]**, and hit enter. She'd ask Kouichirou about it later.

The entire menu disappeared, leaving her standing alone in that empty white room. Then, before she could start to worry, an artificial voice rang out. _"Thank you for playing. Welcome… to _Sword Art Online."

The world fell away.

* * *

A chatter of excited voices reached her ears, and Asuna opened her eyes to sheer wonder.

She stood in a vast plaza of a grand city, surrounded by majestic stone buildings. Out beyond the tallest towers, she caught a glimpse of mountains reaching higher still, surrounding the city; within the plaza, she was presented with a bewildering sea of people. Some of them dressed plainly, others in all manner of flamboyant colors, with hair dyed to match.

Instantly overwhelmed, Asuna turned in place, one way and then the other, just trying to take it all in. A bubbling fountain was the centerpiece of the plaza, pouring into a huge pool surrounding it. Well beyond it, a bell tower caught her eye among the towers surrounding the plaza. Streets ran out in all directions, disappearing between those grand buildings.

What really got her attention, though, and spurred her into motion, was the huge platform on one side. Dozens of people—players, she thought, realizing belatedly the more ordinary people were probably "NPCs"—were already there, looking at the same thing she wanted to see.

Running up to the railing, cloak billowing gently in the breeze, she skidded to a halt right against it. Beyond that railing, the city—and the land—simply ended. All that there was, before her amazed eyes, was open sky. Open sky, a faint golden shimmer, and myriad islands floating in the air, a collection stretching out as far as she could see.

This was it, Asuna realized giddily. This was the place that had captured her imagination, when she'd first seen her brother looking at previews. Even as her body lay motionless in her bedroom, here she stood at the very edge of Origia, the first city players saw in the Aincrad Archipelago. A city on an island sailing through the endless sky, a whole new world.

"Just _look _at it all!" she heard another player exclaim in awe. "I was _so_ jealous of the beta testers, and now here I am… Can you _believe_ this?"

"Yeah! The first VRMMORPG. Man, I was sure it was too good to be true. I mean, previews always exaggerate, right? But this—wow! I didn't think you could _do_ this with VR!"

Asuna couldn't disagree with the sentiment. On a moment's reflection, she noticed a few things were off—she didn't have any hair except on her head, as far as she could tell, and her skin looked just a bit smoother than it should've been. But otherwise? Her clothes felt so real. She could see so clearly, much better than she could with her own body. She'd smelled the fountain in the air when she passed it, and the breeze brought her the faint scent of baking bread. The cacophony of excited voices reached her ears more clearly than even her latest smartphone.

Wheeling away from that amazing—and dizzying—view of the open sky, Asuna trotted back to the city proper. She marveled at the smooth cobblestones under her feet, at the weathered stone of the buildings. If she hadn't known better, she would've believed she'd really been transported to a whole new world. Between players chatting about the same things she was taking in, she saw ordinary people going about their lives. Street merchants selling food and goods, like something out of any real city.

_It's a good thing I do have an alarm,_ she thought. Quickly dragging two fingers down, as the pre-release material had said, to bring up her in-game menu. _I'd never remember to get out in time otherwise!_

After awkwardly navigating that menu and setting it to alert her at 17:30, she took off into the city. She didn't know what she wanted to see first, she just knew she wanted to see it all.

Asuna was in a strange city in a strange world, with no family or chaperones around. She didn't think she'd ever felt so free in her life.

* * *

"I'm Klein, samurai, twenty-four years old, looking for a girlfriend!"

The thing about being in a strange city in a strange world, when Asuna had never touched a game in her life, was that once she'd seen the obvious sights she had _no_ idea what to do next. She knew she needed to buy a weapon, but she didn't know where to look for one, and for all that she'd read all the preview material she could get her hands on, she had only the vaguest idea how fighting worked. She was eager to learn, yet had no idea whatsoever where to start.

Having quickly gotten lost, she'd begun heading vaguely back in the direction of the plaza. Not long after she thought she'd gotten onto a street going more or less that way, she'd run into the man who'd just given her the bizarrely blunt introduction. _"You're a noob, too, right?"_ he'd said at first. _"Man, I don't even know where to go first! Isn't that awesome?"_

Then he'd said… that.

Tall, rakishly handsome, with flaming hair tied back in a samurai's topknot with an outfit that looked like a vague attempt to match. If she hadn't been reasonably sure he looked nothing like that in the real world, Asuna might've been impressed. Well, that, and his ridiculous greeting.

That straightforward self-introduction—made all the weirder by the fact that she was pretty sure he couldn't even see what she looked like under her hood—left Asuna utterly flabbergasted. She could only blink rapidly, staring at the formal bow he had to have lifted right from a _Jidai Geki_ movie, and wonder if he could _possibly_ be for real.

And he _kept_ holding that bow, as if his honor depended on letting her make the next move.

She did, finally. Unable to help herself, Asuna broke down in a fit of giggles, clutching at her stomach. In the real world, she would've found the proposition creepy. Here, in a world of wonders, in a city full of people who looked just as inhumanly good as the self-proclaimed samurai, it came across as just ridiculous.

The giggling, finally, broke Klein's formal bow, and he straightened up with an aggrieved look. "Aw, c'mon, I didn't think it was _that_ bad a line…" That only set her off more, and then he rallied with a sheepish grin. "Okay, okay, maybe it _was_ that bad."

"S-sorry," she got out, gradually shoving the giggles down behind a smile of her own. "It's just, here I am in a whole new world, and the first time somebody even talks to me, it's with _that?"_ Choking off the last of the giggles, Asuna took the edge of her cloak in hand and swept it around in a formal bow of her own. "Asuna, knight errant," she proclaimed, in the spirit of Klein's introduction. _"Not_ looking for a boyfriend."

"Fair enough!" He gave her another bow, this one less stiff and formal, and followed up with another grin. "Okay. Now that we've broken the ice… maybe we can help each other out? I really _don't_ know where to start!"

Another time, another place, Asuna would've said no. She'd been taught from an early age to avoid strangers, after all, especially weird strangers. But here, in the islands in the sky of Aincrad, well, doing the unusual was the whole point. It wasn't like her real body was at risk—even her avatar wasn't supposed to be, inside a town—so as long as she was careful not to give out personal information, she thought it ought to fine.

"Okay, then," she agreed, smiling. "Tell where you've been, I'll tell you where I have, and between us maybe we can at least figure out where to buy weapons."

"Sounds like a plan. And maybe we'll find somebody who _does_ know what they're doing!"

It didn't take long for Asuna to decide that Klein was probably harmless. He kept up a cheerful stream of chatter as they made their way through Origia's streets, weaving through the NPC traffic and the odd group of players who seemed as lost as they were. He also looked very carefully at anything vaguely female along the way, but since he made no further comment or action like his introduction, she was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

It was also a good sign, she thought, that he didn't ask any questions about her real self, not even her age. She might not have known gaming, but she did know basic 'net safety. _Heck, I'm surprised he doesn't think I'm really a guy. I bet _he_ isn't as young as he looks…_

Well. As long as things stayed as they were, Asuna wasn't going to worry about it too much. She was just going to enjoy the casual chat with someone who was absolutely nothing like anyone in her social circles, enjoy the scenery of a city right out of _The Lord of the Rings,_ and keep a sharp eye out for something like a commercial district.

Their ambling circle of the city eventually took them higher up the side of one of the mountains. There, they found a huge, flat platform, which Asuna at first mistook for an airport tarmac. After a second look, she realized she wasn't that far off.

Lining one edge of the platform was a long line of wooden hulls, the larger ones resting in cradles, some of the smaller ones on skids built right into them. Some of them, especially the bigger ones, had visible masts; all of them had at least two pods mounted on their flanks, resembling nothing so much as fantastical jet engines.

It was hard to tell from ground level, but Asuna thought there were ominous barrels mounted on at least some of them.

Klein whistled. "Will you look at that. Airships, huh? I remember seeing screenshots, but it's something else to see them in person!"

"For sure," Asuna agreed, admiring the ships that could never have existed in the world she knew. "Too bad we probably won't be seeing much of them for awhile. Don't I remember from the previews that players only get access to them a little ways into the game?"

"Once the first Skywall is cleared, yeah. Or something like that. Gotta admit, I only read the basics before logging in." He grinned sheepishly. "Kinda wanted things to be a surprise, y'know? I mean, this is _the_ killer app for NerveGear! Who wants spoilers?"

She only had the vaguest notion what a "killer app" was, but nodded anyway. "Must be nice," she said wistfully, turning back to the grounded airships. "I don't expect to have much time to play most days, so I read everything I could find before the game came out. Not that I understood most of the information about gameplay, but…"

A hand landed on her shoulder, light enough to be more reassuring than creepy. "Hey," Klein said seriously. "It's just the first day, right? Don't go getting depressed on me so soon! This is a big game, there's lots to see that wouldn't have been in the previews!"

Shaking herself, Asuna turned a smile on the samurai. "You're right, of course. Anyway, not much of the story was in the previews at all; Kayaba said it'd spoil the twists. I'm looking forward to finding out what he meant."

"That's the spirit!" Grinning, Klein let go of her shoulder and gestured toward the city. "So. Much as I'd love to give these ladies a closer look, we'd better get back down into the city. I don't think we'll find the shops we're after up here."

Too true. And she _was_ on a tight schedule. She'd have hated to have wasted the chance to get into the meat of the game on her first day, after all. Giving the airships one more wistful look, she turned her back and joined Klein on the path back down into Origia proper.

Asuna had to hand it the programmers at Argus, the company behind _Sword Art Online._ This was only the first city on the first of a full one hundred islands, yet it was insanely detailed. Not to mention _huge,_ with a stunning number of NPCs populating it. If it weren't for the few tiny details left out—and, now that she thought about it, something just slightly _off_ about gravity—she would've thought she'd genuinely been transported to another planet, instead of wandering through data projected into her brain.

_And this is only the beginning, from what the previews said. Weren't there even supposed to be other races here? I wonder if any of them are friendly. I know lots of fantasy stories have elves, but if Kayaba was thinking more Fae in the classic sense than Tolkien… well, I'll just have to see for myself, won't I?_

_If I can ever get a sword, anyway!_

"Hey," Klein said suddenly, just as the plaza from before finally came into view again. "That guy looks like he knows where he's going. Hey!" he called out, waving. "You got a minute, buddy?"

Asuna turned to look, rolling her eyes at her companion's latest antics—and stopped.

It wasn't his looks that got her attention. He was tall, around Klein's height, with vaguely handsome features and short, dark blue hair. As with the samurai, that was just a face sculpted by computer modeling, probably hiding a much older—or pudgier—man. It certainly wasn't his outfit, which was just a variation of the same plain adventuring garb she and Klein wore, if a bit darker.

It was his confidence that really stopped Asuna in her tracks. Here they were, in a city so far removed from reality in general, let alone Japan, and yet he looked like he knew _exactly_ what he was doing, where, and why. Before Klein called out to him, the youthful man was running down the street as if he was following a dotted line, ducking around the crowds like they weren't even there.

Now he stopped in his tracks, turning to look at Klein—and Asuna—with a cool, casual demeanor. "…Can I help you?"

…_What's it like, to be that confident in a place like this…?_

* * *

The one thing Kirigaya Kazuto hadn't counted on, returning to _SAO_ after an excruciating two-month wait since the beta test ended, was crowding. The beta had had a grand total of two thousand players log in at the start, and even all at once they were a drop in the bucket for Origia's starting plaza. _Twenty_ thousand, dropped into that space?

Forget the physical issues trying to get around so many people. The shell-shock alone had disoriented him enough that his first priority had been a simple, blind need to _get out._ Somewhere, anywhere, he didn't care, just so long as he got away from that noisy, busy crowd. He didn't think he'd ever been around so many people in one place in his entire life, let alone the last six years.

Then, after _finally_ getting his head on straight from that, reorienting himself, and taking off for Origia's commercial district to gear up, naturally he had to be waylaid by someone.

_Actually,_ he thought, turning to face the player who'd called out to him, _this is… kind of weird. Who bothers talking to _me? "…Can I help you?" he said, trying to project the kind of cool confidence his carefully-crafted avatar ought to have.

Two players, he saw then. One a flamboyant man who seemed to be trying to copy Himura Kenshin, the other… He wasn't quite sure, really. Close to his own height, in starter gear not too different from his own—except for a hooded cloak, which kept him from seeing any other features except a few long locks of blue hair.

"Sorry to bother you," the samurai-wannabe said with a grin. "But we're, y'know, pretty much noobs, and you look like a guy who knows what he's doing." He bowed sharply. "Could you have pity on a couple of noobs and show us the ropes, please?!"

Taken aback, he blinked. _Really going overboard with the samurai thing. Except louder._ Hoping for a saner response, he looked over at the cloaked figure.

"…Loudmouth aside, he seems like a nice enough man," the hooded player said quietly. "He's Klein. I'm Asuna." The player—a girl, he realized to his surprise; though who knew if she really was a "she" behind the avatar—gave a shrug. "If we're bothering you, we'll find our own way around."

He hesitated, glancing between the wary girl and the still-bowing samurai. Normally, he would've just made up an excuse and left. He wasn't rude enough to outright run, but he wasn't exactly keen on being accosted out of nowhere. Not to mention, he wanted to get geared up and started on quests as soon as he could.

_But it's not like I'm in that big a hurry… and Suguha is always telling me I need to talk to people more._ He felt a pang at the thought. _Besides… if not here, in Aincrad again, where else? Back then, I…_

"…The name's Kirito," he said at last, giving a cool nod. "I was a beta tester, so I… guess I can give you some pointers, at least. If you want."

Klein immediately straightened up, with a grin that had Kirito wishing sunglasses were available this early in the game. "Thanks much! I promise you won't regret it!"

Kirito had his doubts about that, somehow. Oddly enough, the way the girl was more reserved was much easier on his nerves. "I'd appreciate it," she said quietly, face still hidden by her hood. "I'm pretty new to the whole gaming thing, so I don't even know where to start."

A gaming newbie, in _SAO?_ Huh. He felt an odd flicker of interest. Maybe giving a couple of noobs a hand would be the kind of social activity he could handle. _If I can keep my foot out of my mouth. I don't remember the last time I even talked to a girl besides Suguha._

_Or Argo. Eeep. Let's hope I don't run into her until after I've got these two on their way. I don't want to know what kind of rumors she'd spread. I can't imagine anybody else would care, but I would._

"Okay, then," Kirito said, deliberately banishing the thought of his one notable acquaintance from the beta test. "First, let's hit the weapons shops. Starting armor isn't too bad, at least for the first few quests, but unless you study martial arts IRL you're not going to get far without a sword…"

* * *

Asuna's first impression of Kirito had been that he had far more self-confidence than she did. Her second was that he _might_ just have some problem with his social skills. He hid it well, but she'd spent her life learning how to put up a mask. In her schools, the dark loner would've been eaten alive.

Which, of course, was half the reason she followed him down Origia's backstreets with only a brief hesitation. It hadn't been Kirito's idea for her and Klein to go with him, he obviously wasn't entirely comfortable with it—and he was about as far from the kind of person her mother would've approved of her going into a dark alley with as could be without being an obvious creep. Right then, that made him exactly the kind of person she wanted to associate with.

Worst came to it, after all, she could just log out. Being in _SAO_ was all about doing the things and taking the risks she wasn't allowed to in real life.

She wasn't entirely surprised when Kirito led them into a small shop in a back alley, rather than someplace more obviously mercantile. "First rule of _SAO,"_ he said quietly, opening the door of the oddly-named _Left-Handed Lizard._ "Never settle for the obvious. You'll get better deals in back alleys. When they're not the cheapest, the stuff will be worth the price."

Asuna nodded thoughtfully. "And they won't be as crowded."

"Well… yeah." Kirito scratched the back of his head. "That's a side benefit… Okay," he amended, seeming to feel the look she gave him from under her hood. "Maybe I prefer it this way. But there's still practical reasons." He waved a hand. "See anything you like? Just about anything here should be within your starting budget."

Klein eagerly bounded in, ponytail whipping around as he looked around enthusiastically. Asuna followed at a more sedate pace, taking in the shop. Surprisingly well-lit for what Kirito implied was a black market shop, with just a single counter toward the back. And weapons. Lots of weapons.

At first she could only goggle at the sight. In Japan, weapons of any kind were a rarity; if there were any shops like this one in Tokyo, they were _definitely_ black market, catering to Yakuza. Seeing all manner of blades, bows, shields, and less familiar items filling every available space on three walls was something of a shock to her system.

But not a bad one, she reminded herself. This was why she was here, after all.

"You won't find many players using bows," Kirito remarked, heading straight for the east wall. "They're more for hunting; they don't fire fast enough to keep the range open against other players."

"They're better in large units," Asuna said, thinking back to some reading she'd done on her own time. "Barrage fire might be good, I guess?"

"Theoretically," he acknowledged, with a nod and a hesitant smile. "There was talk of trying just that in the beta, but they could never get enough people interested in archery. This is a world of swords, first and foremost."

"What about guns?" Klein asked, eagerly examining the wares on the opposite wall. "I heard _SAO_ has stuff like cannons, right?"

"Shipboard, yeah. Airship battles can be pretty impressive, at that. Player weapons?" Kirito shrugged. "Flintlock pistols, and one weird wrist-thing I ran into once. They've got the same problem as bows—reload time—plus they're not very accurate. You'll probably see some people using them to get in cheap shots in the middle of a melee, but not much else."

Asuna nodded thoughtfully. She wasn't going to complain, really. Honestly, the focus on swords had been part of what drew her in, too. She knew, intellectually, that blades were no more elegant than guns. But in the kind of world _SAO_ was supposed to represent, they did have the grace and nobility legend ascribed to samurai and Medieval knights.

"Well, that's just fine by me!" Klein announced, lifting a blade off the wall with a reverent air. "I'm a samurai! Samurai are supposed to use katana!"

As the "samurai" proudly carried his long, curved blade to the counter, Kirito gave a nod. "A slash-type weapon, by _SAO_'s rules. Good reach, about mid-range speed. Agility can be a bit of a problem, with both hands tied up, but no worse than any two-handed weapon and better than some. Katana are more focused on critical hits than, say, two-handed longswords."

Which pretty much fit with what Asuna knew of real swordplay. _Well, Kayaba and his team are supposed to be big on research…_ "What are you using, Kirito-san?"

He blinked. "Well, first, honorifics aren't used much in VR, most people think it sounds weird with character names… Anyway." Kirito lifted a simple sword off the wall. "Basic one-handed sword. Mostly slashing, with a couple of good thrust-type moves. Good speed, and it leaves the other hand free. Not really the best at anything, but a good all-around type."

_Character__ names? …Oops. Did I do something stupid with my name? Oh, well. Just the given name shouldn't be a problem._ Deciding to worry about possible privacy issues later, Asuna turned her attention back to the weapons in front of her. Some she recognized easily enough, variations on Kirito's basic sword or Klein's katana. Sabers she knew well enough, along with the basic polearm types like axes, spears, and naginata. Others were more fantastic, like a nodachi at least two meters long and a… _thing,_ that seemed to be a slab of metal, sharpened on one side and angling to an abrupt point near the end.

Forget avatars being stronger than real bodies. Simple geometry meant you'd have to be a giant just to swing the things.

Some, she only had the vaguest idea about, and one or two curved blades escaped her completely. But nestled among them was something that struck an odd chord with her. There was something similar to it hanging on a wall in her family's house, and if that was an association she didn't entirely like, there was still a certain appeal.

_I did call myself a "knight errant" a little bit ago. This would be straight out of… what was that Western story called? _The Three Musketeers_? I should read that again…_

When Asuna took the slim, plain rapier off the wall, she turned a questioning look on her impromptu teacher. "Thrusting weapon," he said, answering her unspoken question. "Some slashing ability, but mostly you'd be stabbing things a lot. High agility, so you'll be faster than practically anybody else, and while individual hits might be weaker they'll be adding up fast." He looked her up and down, and she started to bristle—then, remembering he couldn't even see her figure under her cloak, she realized he was probably checking something else entirely. "It should suit your avatar's build pretty well."

_Oh. Right. …Wasn't I just thinking about how that matters for bigger weapons?_ Beginning to smile, Asuna took hold of the hilt, let her hand wrap around it—and pulled.

The thin blade was simple, unadorned, and frankly looked a bit cheap. She loved it already.

* * *

_Shing!_

A blinding white flash. A sound like the chiming of a bell—and then, as Asuna's Iron Rapier pierced cleanly through the wolf-like Wild Fang's side, the crash of shattering glass. The enemy—mob, Kirito had called it—broke into a thousand azure polygons, scattering into the wind.

She skidded to a stop, feeling the strange tug of "System Assist" let go, and turned to watch those blue triangles fade away. At first, she'd thought it would be hard to attack such life-like creatures, but the nature of _SAO_'s combat had eased those fears. Red particle sprays and streaks of wireframe, followed by breaking into pieces? That, she could handle.

"Sword Skills are the basis of combat in this world," Kirito said. Off to one side, on the hill he'd led them to outside Origia, he was nimbly dancing between a pair of bird-type mobs. "Very few players are likely to know going in how to use a weapon, so the game was designed to compensate."

"I can see why," Klein grunted, ineffectually swinging his katana at the Wild Fang he'd attracted. It casually jumped to one side, then leapt for his arm with open jaws. Only at the last moment did he manage to find the right position for a Sword Skill of his own, the flat, backhand slash catching those open jaws and continuing straight through the beast's head. "This is tough enough as it is!"

"You get used to it. It's easier once you've built up your skill level high enough, and have access to more Sword Skills." Kirito ducked away from a diving beak, then with barely a flicker of motion brought his sword down in a blue flash. The simple, vertical slice cut through the other Grassbird's neck, dropping it right to the ground.

"So we only have one or two to start?" Asuna was already heading for her next target, giddy at having defeated her first. She found another Wild Fang only a few meters away, and quickly lined up for a repeat of her first successful skill.

"Three," Kirito answered, casually rapping the remaining Grassbird across the beak. It broke away, squawking indignantly, and climbed up to start circling him. "Asuna, besides that Linear you should have Streak and Oblique, that's a slash and a downward thrust…"

Blinking, Asuna quickly changed her stance, feeling around for the right position. She found it a moment before the Wild Fang noticed her, and she was inordinately pleased to see and feel her blade slash across its nose. With a whimper that almost made her feel sorry for it, it fell back, almost half its HP already gone.

_Not as much as the Linear did. Grr._

"Not every skill is meant to finish things right off," Kirito called, glancing back from instructing Klein in the proper "pre-motion" for another of his skills. "Sometimes you're better off using it to set up for unassisted attacks."

Skipping to one side, she let the Fang sail past her in its next leap, and obligingly stabbed at it with nothing but her avatar's strength. "I thought you said Sword Skills were the 'basis of combat'," she said, even as she met the Fang with one more thrust.

"Oh, they are. But there's a lot more to _SAO_ than Sword Skills. Kayaba Akihiko—the lead developer—said in an interview that they're really meant more as a teaching method. Players are called Swordmasters for a reason. Sword Skills do have power boosts—"

Jumping to the left as the Grassbird tried to dive bomb him, Kirito swept his blade out in a backhand not too different from what Klein had done earlier. Again flashing blue, his sword cut through the bird and sent it flying away—then he was spinning around, slashing at another bird that tried to ambush him.

"—But a 'true' Swordmaster is supposed to use them strategically. Once you know what you're doing, you should be able to fight with your own skill, not relying on the system to move for you."

"Ooh." Bringing his katana down in a vicious chop, cutting deep into the flank of his current Wild Fang, Klein grinned. "Now _that_ is cool. You can already do that, huh? Being a beta tester and all."

"Me? No way." Kirito laughed, shaking his head. "The beta only lasted two months, remember? We only reached Siehn—that's the tenth island—in that time, and _nobody_ got good enough to skip system assist that fast. But," he added, grinning in a way Asuna would've found deeply unnerving in the real world, "I did learn some other tricks. Like… _this."_

Unleashing another horizontal slash against his most recent opponent, Kirito promptly whirled. There was another trio of Grassbirds circling not far away, looking for all the world like buzzards wondering if there was about to be a fresh meal. They were also well out of reach—or so Asuna had thought.

She'd wondered about the odd, wrist-mounted… thing… the youth had bought at the _Left-Handed Lizard._ Looking like nothing so much as an anchor on a spring, she hadn't had the least idea what it was for. Now she found out.

The moment Kirito's left arm was aligned with the circling birds, the "anchor" launched into the air, dragging a cable. It buried itself in the chest of one of the Grassbirds—prompting another, sharper squawk—and with a tug of his wrist it was yanked back, right out of the air.

The bird slammed down against the hill, hard, and shattered. Another, casual flick of the wrist, and the cable retracted neatly into its launcher.

"…Okay," Asuna said after a moment. "I'll bite. What _is_ that?"

Kirito grinned again, a much friendlier expression this time. "Oh, this?" He tapped the blade and its cable. "Wrist-grapnel. _SAO_ has a variety of subweapons available, mostly for people using one-handed main weapons. Shields are probably the most common, though I've seen rapier and saber wielders with parrying daggers. And I think I mentioned that weird wrist-gun from the beta, I think that was a rare drop the guy had gotten somewhere… But I prefer this."

"I can see why," Klein said, giving the grapnel an admiring look. Probably lamenting his own weapon made it impractical, Asuna thought. "That was a cool trick."

"That's one use," Kirito said with a nod. "There's more to it than that, though. You know there's airships a little ways into the game, right? You can't land those just anywhere. The most obvious solution is to find the nearest place you can, and go the rest of the way on foot. With one of these?" He grinned. "Hook it on your ship, and you can lower yourself down just about anywhere. A little trick to stay ahead of the pack."

That got Asuna's attention, and she found herself listening very closely as he explained the other ways a grapnel could be used to navigate or attack. _I'm not a gamer. I'm starting a step behind everybody else. Any advantage that lets me catch up, I need to know._

_And I want to get ahead of Nii-san. This time, _I'm_ going to be the one with the head start!_

She was sure she could do it. The studying habits that had kept her right by the top of her class in school all her life, turned on learning the rules of a game? She could do it. She _would_ do it.

"Of course," Kirito was saying then, "most of that doesn't matter for a while yet, anyway. The Skywall blocks airship travel, so the NPCs at the Aerodrome won't even talk to players until the first Barrier Guardian is killed." He paused. "Oh, and guys? Maybe you should pay a little closer attention to your surroundings."

"To my—_yipe!"_

Caught up in the beta tester's exposition, Asuna had honestly kind of forgotten they were still outside a safe zone. She had to abruptly throw herself aside before a dive-bombing bird could hit her in the back of the head—and had to put up with indignity of a laughing Kirito swatting the mob aside.

Klein wasn't quite as lucky. With a squawk fit to compete with the Grassbirds, he batted at the Wild Fang that had taken the opportunity to bite into his backside. It resisted, growling; with another, angrier yelp, the samurai spun as hard as he could, and the moment the Fang was clear slashed down with his katana. _"Youch!_ Take this, you son of a—!"

"Take it easy, Klein." Kirito shook his head, chuckling. "You do remember you can't feel pain here, right?"

"Oh, sure, _I_ can't," Klein groused, viciously stabbing the mob to finish it off. "My _pride,_ now, that's something else! What kind of samurai lets himself get bit in the—?"

"Someone who's been samurai for about an hour," the younger—Asuna thought, anyway—man said dryly. "You've got a ways to go before you're a master."

_Oooh, I'm not taking _that_ lying down._ Recovering her poise, Asuna lifted her chin and fixed Kirito with a hard stare. She wasn't sure he could even _see_ it, past her hood, but it was the principle of the thing. "Fine, then. How about you show us what we're doing wrong?"

Kirito raised one eyebrow. "Well, I _suppose_ I can give you a few more pointers… if you're paying attention, that is."

…_I don't know if I want to pick his brains, or strangle him…._

* * *

It was exhilarating, losing herself in the fantasy that she was a musketeer training to help save a world from evil. Asuna had never so much as touched a video game before, having thought them needless distractions from her studying. Now that the pressure of all that studying had driven her right to that distraction, she realized she'd been missing something incredible.

Though maybe it was just as well. She honestly wasn't sure she would've been so taken with a game less immersive, less _alive,_ than _Sword Art Online._ Aincrad, where she found herself stabbing wolves with an awkward loner and a goofy would-be samurai, was like stepping into another life, not just playing a game.

It must've been around five o'clock, four hours after she'd first logged in, when the three of them climbed another hill outside Origia's walls. This one was free of any enemies, and held some kind of observation tower, provided a breathtaking view of both Origia and the endless sky.

"This? Has got to be the best game _ever,"_ Klein declared, when they'd all dropped onto the tower's stone roof. "Man, I didn't know they could _do_ something like this!"

Kirito chuckled, again scratching his head awkwardly. "Is this your first time in Full-Dive?"

"Hell, yeah! Saved up for months to get my NerveGear and a copy of the game." Klein flopped onto his back, resting his head on his hands. "Only twenty thousand copies, right? I _had_ to make sure I pre-ordered it! …Come to think of it, isn't that kind of a tiny number for a game like this?"

"Usually," Kirito agreed, resting an arm on his knee. "But this _is_ the first Full-Dive MMO. Even the NerveGear's only been out for a couple years, and this is the biggest game ever. I heard the small initial release is a server load-test; word is there'll be more copies when they're sure the servers can handle it. And when they're sure there'll be enough players to justify more servers."

"I think there will be," Asuna said honestly. "This is… this place is incredible."

Just from where she sat, she could see the mountains into which Origia was nestled, along with the vast stone towers of the city itself. Off to the south, the hills rolled down into a deep forest, with the glint of lakes beyond. She thought she could glimpse the roofs of a smaller town, somewhere farther out.

Beyond the edge of Einsla Island, she could see more of the Archipelago in the distance. Between Einsla and the next island, though, she still saw that golden shimmer. In the afternoon light, she could more clearly see it was a honeycomb wall, stretching high into the sky and vanishing into the deep clouds below.

It really did remind her of a beehive, at that. Perspective made it hard to tell, given its grand scale, but she thought it wrapped around Einsla and the other islands like a hive, individual cells separate but linked…

"The Skywall," Kirito said, breaking into her thoughts. "The barrier that wraps around the spiral of the Archipelago, and keeps each island apart. Sections can be lowered by defeating Barrier Guardians, but only one at a time, until Centoria is finally reached."

"Centoria," Asuna whispered, tasting the word. "The center of Aincrad… Who put up the Skywall, anyway? And why?" She knew it was just a game, but surely there was _some_ in-universe explanation. A world this intricate wouldn't just have walls for the sake of walls, right?

_Of course, he did say the beta testers didn't get very far, but still…_

"It was the Axiom Church," Kirito said softly. He was looking out at the Skywall himself, a distant look in his dark eyes. "Centuries ago, the Highest Administrator began to gradually assert power over the Archipelago, until finally, in a grand ritual, she raised the Skywall. Only at her whim can the islands contact each other, and her will is enforced by the Barrier Guardians… and the Integrity Knights."

"Integrity Knights?" Klein repeated, before Asuna could. "What're they?"

"No one knows for sure," Kirito told him, shrugging. His eyes were still on the Skywall. "Like heroes out of old stories, supposedly. They say the Knights can use magic, even though it's lost to everyone else. Supposedly, the Swordmasters are part of a ritual to summon heroes that can stand against the Integrity Knights on even footing, reclaim the Archipelago."

It was only the story of a game. It was only there to provide context for the actions of players having fun playing at being swordsmen. But in that moment, hearing Kirito's wistful tone, Asuna couldn't help but believe in it. Just a little. He sounded less like someone playing a game than someone telling a story about something real.

_He sounds… sad,_ she realized. _Why? Is he one of those hardcore gamers I've heard about? A… what's the word, a roleplayer?_

Kirito visibly shook himself, turning away from that golden wall. "I don't think any beta tester ever actually ran into an Integrity Knight," he said, tone suddenly lighter. "During that time, I _think_ I saw one, riding a dragon beyond Siehn. From what somebody I know dug up, trying to fight one that early would be suicide."

"Elite bosses for later in the game, huh?" Klein said. "Cool! Ahh, I can see it now: a lone samurai, standing between a dark knight and the helpless villagers, grimly determined to win even if it costs him his life—"

"It probably would," Kirito said wryly. "Lore aside, I'm guessing they're raid-level bosses. One player, against that?" He chuckled. "Well, you might get plenty of views on Nico-Nico. For being the new Leeroy Jenkins."

_L__e__eroy Jenkins?_ Not a name Asuna had ever heard before, but Klein reacted as if Kirito had struck him a physical blow. _Oookay… _Only four hours or so she'd been in _SAO,_ and she was already realizing she had a _lot_ to learn. Gamers spoke a completely different language, with their own stories and history. She hadn't felt so lost since she'd started middle school, if then.

_Well,_ she thought, turning to look at the Skywall again, _if there's one thing I know, it's studying. I'll learn._ A musical tone in her ear startled her, bringing her eyes up to the clock display hovering in one corner of her vision. _And speaking of studying… I guess I'd better go soon._

She didn't want to. In four short hours, she'd had more fun than she had in longer than she could remember. She'd even found two people to chat with, however weird they might've been. _Because_ of how weird they were, really. Klein's sheer goofiness was oddly endearing, and if she was honest, Kirito's strange wistfulness and social awkwardness struck an odd chord with her.

_It's not like this will be the last time I log in, anyway,_ Asuna reminded herself. _So long as I'm careful, I can come back tomorrow._ And she _would_ be careful. There was no way she was losing this chance from slipping up around her mother.

"Man, this is just too cool," Klein said, apparently recovered from whatever insult Kirito had delivered with that unfamiliar name. "So real… I wish I could just stay in all night!"

Kirito turned back from the Skywall. "You have to log out soon?"

"Yeah, 'fraid so." The samurai stretched, red ponytail looking like fire in the light of the setting sun. "I'm gonna be back in later to meet some buddies, but probably not for long. I've got a pizza set to be delivered in just a few minutes… and then I've got work in the morning. Bleh."

"I should be going, too," Asuna said regretfully, pushing herself to her feet. "I've got an early start tomorrow, too." She decided it was best not to say what. The two had left a surprisingly good impression on her, but making it clear she was a teenage girl didn't seem like a good idea. Not yet, anyway. "Thank you for the help, Kirito...kun."

_There, that sounds about right. __It doesn't feel right to skip it altogether._

Kirito smiled, looking just a bit shy. "It was no problem, really. It was… kinda fun, actually."

"What am I, chopped liver?" Klein said plaintively; but he was smiling, too. "Thanks, buddy. Both of you. I would've been _totally_ lost today without you. So…" He swept two fingers down, bringing up his menu. "Up for some friend requests?"

Asuna blinked. Hesitated. Exchanged a quick, wary glance with Kirito, and found herself oddly reassured by his own hesitation. Honestly, she'd expected to go it completely alone in _SAO,_ at least until her brother was able to log in. The idea of making in-game friends hadn't even crossed her mind until Klein had given his hilariously awkward introduction, and she still had no idea what either of them was really like behind the avatar.

_But online games wouldn't be so popular in the first place if it was _that_ dangerous. This is normal, right? As long as I'm careful…_

"Okay," she said finally, smiling just a little. "I'm up for it. Kirito-kun?"

She wondered about his hesitation. He was obviously a veteran gamer, so he had to be used to this kind of thing. Right?

Eventually, though, he seemed to come to a decision, and with another shy smile he nodded. "…Why not?"

Grinning, Klein sent first Kirito, then Asuna friend requests, both of them quickly accepting. She couldn't help but feel a bit of a thrill, seeing the first name fill in the top of her Friends List—then had to stifle a giggle as she and Kirito just looked at each other for a long moment. In the end, she took the initiative to send the request to him, and after another tiny pause, his name appeared in her menu, too.

_Friends,_ she thought. _…Maybe we really can be. Even if it's just here, in Aincrad._

Klein looked like he was about to say something else, then seemed to think better of it. "Well, it's been a blast, guys," he said. "If you guys are logged in tomorrow, maybe I'll introduce you to my friends. But for tonight," he proclaimed dramatically, "pizza awaits!"

Asuna couldn't help but giggle again at his antics. But she really was starting to push her luck, so after inclining her head respectfully to Kirito, she brought her menu back up. It was, she thought regretfully, time for her to go back to being a student, and hang up her new sword.

_For tonight, anyway. If I just time things carefully… enough… huh? What the—?_

With the faintest thrill of alarm creeping up her spine, she stared at the log-out option. The grayed-out option, which had just given her an indignant "Beep!" when she pressed it. Pressing it again, slowly and carefully, got her the same reaction, this time accompanied by a red circle-and-slash symbol appearing over the floating button.

"…Guys?" Asuna said slowly. "Are either of you able to log out?"

"You, too?" Klein's words immediately dashed her hopes. "Nope." He was stabbing at his own menu, with the same amount of success. "Not doing a damn thing. Hey, Kirito, the 'Log-Out' button _is_ supposed to, y'know, log us out, right?"

Glancing up from whatever menu work he'd been doing, Kirito frowned. "Well… yeah, that is kinda the point. Maybe you're pushing… the wrong… one…?" As he spoke, he visibly shifted through submenus, and his frown deepened. "Okay… _that's_ weird."

Asuna's blood was getting colder by the moment. "Weird?" she blurted. "It's a disaster!" _If I don't get out quick, Mother will find out what I'm doing, and then—!_

"Easy," Kirito told her, flicking over to another menu. "This is too big a glitch for the GMs to just ignore. Forget emergency patching, as soon as they realize there's an issue, they'll probably force-eject everybody. If we all send reports, that should get things moving faster."

She forced herself to stay calm. "And how long will that take?"

"A few minutes, if we're lucky. Maybe half an hour, tops?" He shrugged. "If nothing else, if you've got anybody living with you, they can just take the NerveGear off and cut the connection that way. It's not fun, but it works."

Her blood froze at that. _No, no, no, that's bad! That's as bad as it gets! If Mother has to do that, she'll never let me out of her sight again! I'll—I'll be stuck with that—!_

"I live alone, though," Klein said slowly. The samurai was frowning, the first trace of concern crossing his face. "What about you guys?"

Asuna was too petrified to answer. Kirito shrugged, giving an oddly sad smile. "Oh, my sister should notice. Eventually, anyway…"

If she'd been a tiny bit less frightened, she would've kicked Klein for the way his expression suddenly lit up. "You have a sister?! What's she like?! Is she going to be playing—"

She would never forget the sound that interrupted him. The sound of a bell ringing, somewhere in the distance. Deep, and booming. She'd never heard anything like it, and she was suddenly sure she never wanted to hear it again. The ringing went deep into her bones, bringing with it an indefinable, yet inescapable, feeling of dread.

"_He__ar__ it not,"_ the quote from _Macbeth_ whispered through Asuna's mind. _"For it is a knell that summons thee to heaven, or to hell…"_

Blue light washed over the three of them, and the tower was swept away beneath their feet.

* * *

Bad enough for the log out function to be glitched out on launch day, when Suguha was all too likely to assume he was just playing late and not try to help. Worse to hear again a bell that had haunted his nightmares for years. It was almost a relief when the blue light of a forced teleport followed, instead of the wrath Kirito had instinctively anticipated.

Being dropped right back in the Summoning Plaza, surrounded by twenty thousand _very_ confused—and loud—players still wasn't quite as bad. _Almost, though. What the hell is going on?_

Dropped in right next to him, Klein was looking around wildly, his ridiculous ponytail hitting Kirito in the neck. "What the—is this something to do with the 'force-eject' you mentioned, Kirito?"

Asuna, he noticed, was standing on his other side, frozen stiff. He didn't know exactly what was wrong, and for once found himself _really_ wishing he'd leveled-up his social skills before. Not having the least idea how to reassure her was just plain painful.

At least he could answer Klein's question. Kind of. "I don't see how it could be," he said, pitching his voice to carry through the babble of so many other players. "If anything, gathering all the players first would just make things worse, what with the lag. …Actually, we ought to have seen plenty of lag just from the VFX of all the teleports…"

Kirito was still chewing on that technical oddity when Asuna inhaled sharply. "What… what's going on up there?"

He followed her pointing finger, just in time to see the entire sky turn from sunset orange to stark, glaring red. The Skywall that encased Einsla had changed from a warm gold to crimson, the hexagons that formed it now proclaiming **[System Alert].**

A lot of the other players in the plaza were audibly scared. Kirito, though, felt his shoulders slump in relief. "It's okay," he said. "I think I know what's going on now. They brought everybody here to explain what's going on all at once."

Asuna didn't seem reassured. "Well," she said, through gritted teeth to judge from her tone, "I wish they'd hurry up. Some of us need to log out _now!"_

…_Sounds serious. Guess it's not my business, though. But she's right, too, they ought to be quicker about this—_

The alert message was reassuring. The bright, crimson flash from beyond the Summoning Plaza's observation platform, not quite so much. If only because Kirito couldn't remember anything like it happening during the beta. _None_ of what was going on fit with the beta, and when he turned with the rest of the players to see what was going on, something in him expected to see a dragon. Maybe several dragons.

_Or worse, a pale face in the sky, pronouncing judgment…_

No dragons. No faces out of nightmares. Just a wireframe in the shape of a flying battleship, out beyond the Skywall. Approaching that wall, the wireframe filled out, layer by layer, as if being rendered from the ground up. Just as its bow touched the Skywall, a gleaming hull settled into place—and as it pushed through, the crimson alert messages seemed to bleed over it.

Soon, the blood-red airship was through, gliding to an easy halt a dozen meters from the observation platform. There was no sound, except for the drone from the ship's massive propellers. No movement, except the restless stirring of twenty thousand players. And then—

Light, from the airship's superstructure. Bright lines flickering out, tracing a figure in the air in the same way the ship itself had appeared. Layer by layer, until there stood on the airship's deck a giant, translucent figure. An ordinary man, at first glance, notable only for his long, white labcoat.

"W-what is that?!" he heard someone nearby—a girl, he thought, though not one he knew—exclaim. "What's going on here?!"

"Don't worry," a deeper voice assured her confidently. "He never showed up in the beta, but that's the lead developer. He must be here to tell us what's going on, or maybe he's part of an event. Cool airship, don't you think?"

_No. I don't think that's what's happening at all. Something's not right here…_

"**Greetings, Swordmasters,"** a deep, booming voice said from that hologram. **"I am Kayaba Akihiko. Allow me to welcome you to **_**Sword Art Online,**_** and to the Islands of the Aincrad Archipelago. To your new home. To the beginning of your new lives."**

"Kayaba… Akihiko…?" Asuna whispered. "Isn't he… the creator of _SAO…?"_

"And what the hell does he mean, 'new home'?" Klein demanded. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"**What you've all no doubt noticed by now is no prank or system error,"** Kayaba said, as if answering the samurai directly. **"The final version of **_**Sword Art Online**_** never possessed a log out option at all, nor was it intended to. You have been called here to complete this world, and the moment you logged in, the circle was closed. Your new journey, to open the skies of Aincrad, has begun. ****Until that journey is complete, this is your world.****"**

* * *

Asuna had thought, for so much of her life, that a failed test was about the worst thing that would happen to her. The possibility of her mother's displeasure, should she stumble in her studies, had been the most frightening in her life. That was why she'd been so careful, scheming with her brother for this simple respite.

_We can't… log out…? We're trapped here…?_

Sheer, howling terror at how her mother would react distracted her from even the hubbub around her, as other players yelled at the apparition of Kayaba. She barely noticed Kirito tersely explaining to Klein just how real the possibility was, that Kayaba was telling the truth. She was too busy picturing her mother's frown.

_Not fair. It's not _fair!_ I was finally having fun, you can't _do_ this to me…!_

"**Perhaps I've been unclear… so let me speak plainly. ****You cannot exit **_**SAO.**_** Until you have cleared the game, you will remain within Aincrad. Any attempt by those on the outside to remove the NerveGear, disconnect it from external power, or from the **_**SAO**_** servers, will result in the NerveGear's signal sensors overloading, destroying the player's brain."**

Those words yanked her attention back to that huge, impassive figure. "W-what…?" He couldn't possibly have said what it sounded like. Being trapped was one thing, horrible as it was. He couldn't _really_ have just said…"Did—did he just say we'll… die?" she whispered. "That's… that isn't possible… is it…?"

From the disbelieving yells and curses, Asuna wasn't the only one doubting that casual statement. But when she looked at Kirito, that cool, collected youth, he'd gone deathly pale. "The transmitters in the NerveGear redirect nerve impulses, Asuna," he said, sounding more numb than terrified. "That's… pretty delicate work. And deep. Overloading the system…"

Asuna didn't really hear what he said after that. The details of how it worked, what precautions Kayaba could've taken—none of that mattered. Not next to the simple fact.

_I'm dead. Whatever happens now… I'm dead._

"**Let me assure you, you will not die merely by an act of God. So long as the NerveGear itself is not tampered with, there is a grace period of ten minutes disconnected external power and two hours disconnected from the **_**SAO**_** servers before the overload is triggered. Provided outside support is careful, you may have no fear in that respect."**

What did that matter? She had an important test coming up soon. Fail it, and it didn't even really matter if she was still alive. Everything in her life was crumbling anyway, with every moment she stood in that plaza.

"This can't… it can't be real…"

"**Be assured, also, that the relevant government authorities have already been informed, and measures are being prepared to take care of your bodies on the other side. I would advise all of you to find safe places by midnight, lest you be caught in the field during your transfer to medical facilities. Regretfully,"** Kayaba added—and bizarrely, there did seem to be a note of regret in his voice—**"not everyone believed the reports. Four hundred thirty Swordmasters have exited this world and the other."**

Sick horror washed over her, mixed with a distant bitterness. Obviously, her careful timing to avoid her mother discovering what she was up to had worked. Otherwise, Asuna was absolutely certain, she would have already died. Yuuki Kyouko, she thought sickly, was unlikely to believe such a ridiculous tale without evidence.

Her knees finally buckled, and she collapsed to the stone pavement. _Dead… they're dead, and I… I was almost…_

* * *

Kirito didn't blame Asuna for falling, any more than he did the many other players succumbing to shock. He was surprised he was able to stay on his feet, as Kayaba Akihiko coolly and dispassionately explained their doom. Explained how they'd all be fine now, showed them all proof in windows hovering over his grand crimson airship depicting news reports.

The family he caught a glimpse of in one of those windows wasn't his. He knew that. Small comfort to those he suspected _were_ seeing family, and small comfort to him, knowing how he'd left his own behind.

He had the sudden, nauseating feeling he was inflicting on them exactly what had driven him to Aincrad in the first place. The reversal was enough to make him want to either vomit, or run screaming from the Summoning Plaza.

"**As I say, you have little to fear from the world in which your bodies remain,"** Kayaba continued in a calm, conversational tone. **"You are free to focus on the task ahead: tearing down the Skywall, and claiming Bifrost. The bridge between worlds at the heart of the Archipelago is the key to your release, if you can but reach it."**

"Are… are you serious?!" Kirito was surprised to realize the voice now shouting to the sky was his own, as was the first raised against the crimson airship and the man who stood upon it. "You've trapped us in here! How the hell can you expect us to just keep on like it was still a game…!"

Kayaba's avatar didn't really turn to look at him directly. There was no no reason whatsoever for the game master who controlled the world to look at Kirito specifically, to address one lone player. But when that mild-looking face turned, he couldn't help but think the gamemaster really _w__as_ staring right at him.

"**There is one final condition,"** that booming voice said. **"If your HP should reach zero, your avatars will still be destroyed. Now, however, that destruction will be final. The NerveGear's termination protocol will activate. Death, after all, is death, no matter the world in which you reside."**

Kirito's eyes were drawn at once to the lifebar hovering in the upper-left of his vision. Bright blue, it was completely full, reading 342/342. As of that moment, that number represented how long he could survive, in the very combat he'd been teaching Asuna and Klein only minutes before.

He'd seen that number fall to zero dozens of times, in the beta test. Not one Barrier Guardian had ever been defeated without total party wipes, and even successes had always had casualties. He'd died there, again and again. He'd learned, but he'd died, even as late as the final day of the beta.

_Who in their right mind would even _try_ to beat the game when a single mistake will kill you…? If any of this is true, nobody will ever even leave Origia!_

"**Remember,"** Kayaba said. **"Nothing is eternal. No matter what, this world will not last forever. If you wish to ever leave it, your only choice is to reach Centoria Cathedral, and claim Bifrost for yourselves. Only then will you ever escape this simulacrum. That is your choice, Swordmasters: stay in safety, until your real bodies give out or the system is shut down, or fight your way to freedom.****"**

For a moment, Kirito's vision swam. It had been years since he'd been confronted with such a contradiction in the world, since he'd seen something else as just as "real" as the world he lived in with his parents and Suguha. He'd escaped that contradiction the hard way, and had never fully shaken the nightmares from it. Now, in the same way as before, having to do the opposite, focus on the unreal—

_How can I do that? How can I just push aside the real world? How can anybody? __This is just…_

"**To those who still doubt the world before their eyes, I give you a gift. A way to keep in mind the stakes of the game, while keeping in sight your final goal. Please, open your inventories and see the item I've placed there."**

A sinking feeling in his stomach, Kirito obeyed Kayaba's instruction. Everyone did, as far as he could tell; maybe they were all too numb to do anything else. Soon, a mirror was falling into his hand. A perfectly ordinary hand mirror, to his confusion. All it showed, when he looked into it, was his carefully-crafted avatar, wearing an expression of pure puzzlement.

And then—

* * *

White light, all around her. Asuna heard yells of confusion, fear, even anger. She was too numb to feel any of those things, only blinking against the bright light—but when it faded, she found herself as confused as anyone.

The red samurai had vanished, replaced by a bandit. His clothes were still there, along with his bandana, but the face was completely different, bearing a scruffy goatee. The flaming ponytail was gone, replaced by much shorter hair of a much duller shade of red. Beside him, the handsome youth had also changed, build turning leaner, face losing some of the sharpness. His deep blue hair had turned an ordinary black.

She stared at them. They stared at each other. Then, eyes wide, they glanced back at their mirrors.

_Chestnut hair. Brown eyes. My hair. _My _eyes. …My body…_

"You really are a teenager?!" Asuna blurted, in time with the bandit.

"You really are a girl?!" Kirito yelped.

"_Klein?!"_

"How?!" Klein demanded. "How the hell does the game know what we really look like?! It's not like the thing has a webcam or anything!"

Kirito's dark eyes took on a distant look. She could practically see him reading manuals in his head. "Sensors in the NerveGear," he muttered, with the air of someone focusing on the familiar to escape the frightening. "It can scan our faces as well as our brains… and the calibration test…"

Oh. Right. That one, Asuna remembered. It had been embarrassing, giving herself a pat down, but it had made some sense at the time. Now it made more terrifying sense, realizing what the point of it all had been.

From the babble of the players around them, others had realized it, too. The reminder that they weren't alone drew Asuna's attention from the realization that Kirito couldn't have been any older than her, back to the programmer and his crimson airship hovering in the sky above.

"**I am sure you have one last question,"** Kayaba said then, as if deciding enough people were paying attention again. **"'Why?' Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, be doing such a thing? Am I holding you for ransom, you ask yourselves? Am I a psychotic mass murderer? …No. **_**SAO**_** itself was my goal all along. As I told you before, with your summoning the circle was closed. ****The developer's**** role is ended. What you do with the world before you is my goal.**

"**Your destiny is yours alone now. In this world of swords and open sky, your choices are limited only by your own will. Fight alone, or together. Press on, or hide in safety. Perhaps…"** Kayaba seemed to smile then, incongruously. **"Perhaps you will even find allies within this world. Your destination is blocked by the Skywall. There is no single path beyond it.**

"**Rejoice, Swordmasters! From now until you reach Centoria Cathedral, you cannot return to your world—but in exchange, you have ahead of you a journey none on Earth have ever seen. Your trials and tribulations as you conquer Aincrad's skies will be experiences to be treasured. And once you wrest Bifrost from the Highest Administrator, from Quinella's grasp, you will have gained freedom to leave this world by your own hands!**

"**Rejoice, Swordmasters. Welcome once more to the Aincrad Archipelago. Rejoice, and shape your Fate!"**

There was silence, on the heels of Kayaba Akihiko's final proclamation. Silence… and then Kayaba's avatar collapsed, the lights on his airship's bridge cutting out. Its engines roared, propellers revving up to push it forward. The ship accelerated, swinging in a wide arc to cast its shadow over the city and the players, and soared back to the Skywall. It pierced that wall again, dissolving as it went—and then it was gone.

A frozen stillness. Then, in the blink of an eye, the Skywall's hexagons snapped back to shimmering, ethereal gold, with no trace of the alert message.

Asuna could only stare up at that barrier, feeling the foundations of her world come tumbling down. She'd logged into _SAO,_ come to the world of Aincrad, for a chance at something different from the life she'd always lived. She hadn't counted on then being unable to leave it.

Einsla, Origia, the Skywall, and all that lay beyond… that that was now her world was something she just couldn't process. Not right away. Even after Kayaba's speech, it was just too unreal—

Then the screaming began. The screaming, the panic, the begging, as twenty thousand players reacted at once. "Stop joking! Get back here, you bastard, and _let us out!"_

"This can't be real… this can't be real…!"

"Are you nuts?! I have an important dinner meeting! Quick playing around, dammit!"

"But… but I have an exam tomorrow, I need to study…!"

That last brought Asuna back to herself with a gasp. Glancing around wildly, she recognized for the first time that she and her companions weren't the only ones who had changed. Every face was different, and so many of them were suddenly younger, with completely different bodies. _So few girls…_

She had to resist a hysterical giggle, in the middle of that horror, at seeing so many guys in female outfits. It was like one last, cruel joke from Kayaba—but if she gave in to the humor, she wasn't sure she'd ever come out of it.

A flicker of motion, beyond the Skywall, distracted her from that. Not Kayaba's grand ship this time, but something much smaller. Asuna squinted, too numb now even to be frightened of what could be coming next. _Is that… a bird…? No… it's too big. But it has wings, and… and it's coming this way—_

"Come on!"

A hand grabbed hers, tugging insistently. Any other time, Asuna would've snapped; now, in the daze, in the middle of twenty thousand panicked players, she allowed Kirito to drag her and Klein off to an alleyway, away from the crowds. Away from the scene where Kayaba had pronounced their doom.

Down the stone streets of Origia, through back alleys she'd gotten lost in with a kind of giddy amazement only hours before. As with the first time she'd seen him, Kirito seemed to know exactly where he was going, and why. That time she'd found it oddly inspiring. Now she was only grateful _someone_ seemed able to keep a clear head in the middle of the madness.

_Even if I have no idea how he's doing it. Who can think straight… after that…?_

Kirito brought them to a halt at the mouth of an alley, leading out of Origia's walls into the deepening night. "Listen," he said, low and urgent. "Right now, everyone is panicking. Nobody knows what to do. But when the panic wears off, people are going to realize they need resources. Levels, money, materials—and in an MMO, there's always competition for that." His dark eyes met hers and Klein's in turn. "If we're going to survive, we need to stay ahead."

"And… how do we do that?" Asuna got out, past a throat that wasn't really dry, however much it felt like it _should_ have been. "I… I don't know where to go…"

"I do. The area around Origia will be chaos for days, maybe weeks—but I know how to reach the next town safely. With three of us, we can fight the mobs in that area safely, without running out." He paused, suddenly looking much less certain. "I mean… if you'll trust me."

He didn't expect them to. Asuna could see that in Kirito's eyes and stance, hear it in his voice. He didn't really expect either of them to trust him. Not that much.

_Is it because this is a game?_ Asuna wondered. _You never know who anyone really is, even if we're all using our real faces now. But… it feels like it's more than that. Not like me, but… not that different, either._

Kirito was patient, she'd give him that. He only stood there, visibly keeping himself from fidgeting, and waited.

"…You've helped me out a ton already, Kirito," Klein said slowly, a troubled frown on his face. "I'd trust you to lead us anywhere. But… remember I said I was going to meet some friends?" He pointed a thumb back the way they'd come; Asuna could hear the shouts and screams even from where they were. "They're back there, somewhere. I can't just leave 'em."

Kirito opened his mouth, then closed it, looking suddenly anxious. After a moment, she realized why: whatever idea he had for keeping three people going probably wasn't going to work as well for many more. Someone like him, who'd probably mostly played alone, wouldn't likely know how to handle a larger group.

"Well," he began finally, "I might be able to find—"

Klein abruptly held up a hand. "Nope. Don't even offer, Kirito. Whatever it is, it's not gonna be easy on you. You've already done plenty, just showing me the ropes. I'm not gonna ask for more." Despite the situation, he actually grinned. "I was a guildmaster in our last game. I can take care of my guys, don't you worry."

Kirito swallowed. "Klein… I…"

"Nope! Not a word about it, buddy." The samurai shook his head firmly, still smiling. "You've done all a guy can ask. The only thing I want from you now?" He dropped a hand on Asuna's shoulder, startling her. "Take care of her. I think she'll do better with you than with my guys."

Klein's real face was scruffy-looking. The bandana and the red of his starter gear made him look like he was doing a bad cosplay of a samurai. He'd only barely gotten a start on learning to use a katana, however enthusiastic he may have been.

Tired, dazed, and scared out of her wits, Asuna had the strangest feeling Klein was handling the situation better than anyone.

Watching Kirito's face from under the cover of her hood, she saw Kirito hesitate, visibly torn. "I…" He stopped. Took a deep breath. Straightened his shoulders, and gave a slow nod. "All right, Klein. Take care of yourself—and if you have any questions, well…"

"You're on my list," Klein said, with a nod of his own. "I'll remember. You be careful, too, you hear me? I owe you." He turned to Asuna, then, and grabbed her other shoulder. "And you? Kirito might not look the part, but I think you can trust him. He's got that vibe, right?"

Mutely, Asuna nodded. The youth had the build of an otaku, but he obviously knew what he was doing. And if anything, his awkwardness reassured her. He'd hesitated, when she and Klein first approached him. And he _had_ gotten them both out of the Summoning Plaza, before the situation could get any worse.

Not a judgment she would've made in the real world. In Aincrad, she thought she had no choice. Surviving the game of death Kayaba Akihiko had trapped them in would mean throwing the dice one way or another.

"Good." Klein gave a firm nod, let go of her shoulders, and moved to jog back down the alley. Halfway down, though, he paused. "Oi, Kirito!" he called over his shoulder. "Just so you know—you look a lot better when you're not trying too hard to be cool!"

Kirito laughed, shaky and strained. "And you're better off not pretending you aren't a bandit, Klein!" he shouted back. "Just make sure you only rob the right people!"

"Hah! Fine, then. Just like Goemon!"

Then he was gone, and Asuna was left alone in that alleyway with Kirito. Alone, with a boy she'd never met before, in a dark alley, in a world terrifyingly far from home. Turning back to face him, she met his eyes. Took a deep breath. Nodded.

* * *

After Klein had left, leaving Kirito with a terrible mix of relief and crushing guilt, he was left alone with a girl. In his sixteen years of life, it was a startlingly novel experience. He didn't think he'd been alone with a girl in at least six years, and even he knew there was a difference between that situation at ten, and at sixteen.

Asuna only followed him silently, though, when he turned to head out into the field. As the sun dipped out of sight beyond the horizon, she followed him down the stone-paved road out of Origia. Followed him even when he turned away from the road, running up onto the hills along Einsla's edge.

He was glad. If he'd seen what he thought he'd seen, coming toward Einsla in the wake of Kayaba's speech, he didn't want to be anywhere near Origia when it arrived. If he—if the playerbase as a whole—was lucky, it was just there to find out what the fuss was about.

_If not… We can't be there for it. Not now._

Only when they'd crested one of the taller hills, half a kilometer out from Origia, did Kirito slow down and stop, turning to face his unlikely companion. "Are you sure about this?" he asked. His voice was low, despite the nearest players being much too far away to hear. "I mean, I…"

She stopped, too, turning her still-hooded face toward the island's edge. Toward the rising night sky of Aincrad, so different from Earth. "…I died today."

He blinked, taken aback by the morbid statement. "Asuna…?"

"Kirito-kun," she said, still looking at the stars. At the first of Aincrad's moons, lifting above the horizon, far bigger than Earth's moon. "If I go with you, will you teach me how to fight?"

"Well, yeah." People, he didn't know very well at all. Aincrad's physics and gameplay were far more familiar. "I'll teach you everything I can about the game. But, Asuna…" Kirito swallowed. Klein had relieved him of the terrifying possibility of being responsible for an entire guild. That didn't make the burden the wannabe-samurai had entrusted him with much easier. "I can't guarantee your safety. If you leave the Safe Havens, you might _really_ die."

That, more than his own death, scared him. One thing to risk his own life. In his nightmares, he'd done it before, and he was grimly prepared to do so in a waking dream. For escape, and to find the truth, he'd make that gamble. Someone else trusting him with that? He was feeling weak in the knees already.

"If this game kills me," Asuna said, low but firm, "at least it'll be on my own terms. I have to move forward, grow stronger here. One stumble, and I've lost everything in our world. The moment Kayaba trapped us, I died. If I'm going to live again, I need to be stronger. If I can be part of taking Bifrost, of freeing everyone, I'll have done something that my m… that no one can deny." She turned to face him, eyes just barely visible in the light as Aincrad's second moon began to rise. "If I can do that, I'll have the strength to stand on my own two feet."

Kirito had no idea what she meant by most of that. Even less of an idea what circumstances led her to the conviction that whatever life she had IRL was already over, just from being trapped a matter of hours. He didn't know what conviction kept her standing, staring at him, when she was plainly as frightened as anyone.

_But I've got my own reasons for moving forward, even knowing this world can kill me now. Her__s__ probably make a lot more sense than just chasing dreams, too. And… well, it's not like I won't be safer myself, with someone to watch my back._

"Aincrad is a world of swords and airships," Kirito said quietly, glancing away from her to the Skywall, shimmering like white gold under the twin moons. "In this world, those two things are all that matter. With them, you can go anywhere you want. _Be_ anyone you want." Hesitantly, he held out one gloved hand. "If you're willing to trust me, I'll teach you everything I can."

Asuna looked down at that hand. Very slowly, she reached out to take it with her own—and with her free hand, she threw back her hood.

Chestnut hair flew free, gleaming almost black in the moonlight. Golden eyes met his black, and her hand gripped his with surprising firmness. "Then I'll be in your care, Kirito-kun."

Transfixed, Kirito could only nod. "Likewise, Asuna. …We won't lose to this world."

* * *

The entire world had gone completely mad. Under the light of unfamiliar constellations and two enormous moons, Asuna was running along a hill that bordered open sky with a boy she'd met less than twelve hours before. Instead of a school uniform and a book bag, she had a hooded cloak and a rapier.

Instead of worrying about her latest test scores, she had the prospect of death hanging over her like the Sword of Damocles.

There was something dizzyingly exhilarating about it. She was terrified, she was trapped—and yet she was _free. _The wind was in her hair, her path was lit by moon and starlight, and her companion was someone she never would've dreamed of associating with IRL. She'd _chosen_ to follow Kirito's course, even when every ingrained instinct screamed for her to hide in Origia until rescue came.

_Though, speaking of…_

"Kirito-kun," Asuna said, as the dark-haired boy turned to start them down the hill, into the island's interior. "Why can't we just wait for rescue? I know what Kayaba said, but… there must be _some_ way the authorities can break his trap."

"…There won't be rescue," Kirito said, almost too low to hear over the sound of their own passage. "If there were going to be, we'd already be out."

The gloomy certainty in his voice earned him a sharp look. So did the fact that their course was now leading them directly toward a forest. She knew he'd said there was another town that would give them better chances, but right into the woods in the middle of the night wasn't quite what she'd expected. Especially not with what she'd seen on the edges of that forest, while they were still on the hilltops.

"You're going to explain yourself when we're somewhere safer," she said, eyeing him warily. "And why are we going into the forest, when there's a village on the outskirts? Wouldn't that be safer?"

"In the short term, in theory," Kirito replied. He slowed down as they reached the edge of the treeline, sweeping down two fingers to bring up his menu. "For long-term survival, though, we need to take a few risks. …And that village isn't a risk worth taking."

…_I'm starting to wonder if this was a good idea already. That didn't even make sense._ Asuna forced herself to stand and wait anyway, because like it or not, he knew more about the game in general than she did. She'd thrown the dice, now she had to live with them.

He'd set his menu to visible, allowing her to see his map. Though it had just as much empty, unexplored space as hers, he'd made several annotations of his own. Probably based on his knowledge from the beta test, she thought.

"Anyway," Kirito said, lifting the map so she could see it more easily, "that village wouldn't do us much good for grinding. Farming village, not many mobs, pretty much nowhere to get new gear." He tapped a spot further into the blank area of the forest. "Here's where we're going: Horunka Village. There's a couple of quests there for better weapons, the shop has tougher armor than Origia's markets. If we're careful—and with two of us, that shouldn't be hard—the mobs will be good for EXP, too."

Asuna considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, that makes sense. Let's get started."

He dismissed his map, started toward the trees—then paused. "You're okay with going through the night?"

She huffed, hands on her hips. "And you're not?" she said pointedly. "You were the one who said we'll be competing with other players for stuff. Besides…" She looked away, back up at those eerie moons. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep for awhile yet, anyway."

_If at all. If I go to sleep here, and wake up here… that'll make everything real. I'm… I'm not ready for that. Not yet._

Kirito looked back at her. She wondered, meeting those dark eyes, how much of that thought he could sense. Wondered, too, how much of it he was feeling himself. She'd seen him, during Kayaba's speech. He couldn't be nearly as calm as he looked, after that.

Whatever he may have been thinking, though, Kirito only nodded slowly. "All right. Then let's go." He started into a trot, going into the trees, and Asuna followed right behind. "For one thing, one of the quests I'm thinking of has a really low drop rate for the key item. If we don't get started now, we really will be at this all night."

Asuna wasn't sure that would be entirely a bad thing, if it kept her from having to face sleep.

Originally, Kirito had been glad to become a beta tester simply for the chance to get a head start on exploring _SAO._ Now he was guiltily grateful he had the knowledge that experience gave him to, just maybe, help keep himself and his impromptu partner alive.

_First, the Anneal Blade quest,_ he thought, leading Asuna into the forest. _I can't help her if I'm not at my best. Then… I guess I'll have to track down Argo, she should have some idea where to get a good rapier this earl__y__._

Although just then, the thing he was most grateful for about having been in the beta was that he was already used to the eerie blue light that lit the dark places of Aincrad. While the stars and the two moons lit the fields well enough, this deep in the forest that concession to gameplay was the only reason they could see at all. Without it, even he would've been tripping over tree roots and running into branches, at the pace they were maintaining.

At least Asuna was keeping up surprisingly well. Newbie she might've been, but she was a quick study. That was probably the only reason he wasn't completely freaking out at being responsible for her.

Though the deeper they got into the forest, the more something else was starting to bother Kirito. "…That's weird," he muttered, as much for his own benefit as for Asuna's. "We should've run into some mobs by now. This place should be crawling with Little Nepenthes, if nothing else…"

Certainly the hills had had their fair share of mobs, weak as they were so close to Origia. _And if there aren't any Nepenthes around, that's going to make the quest kinda difficult. What…?_

"Could someone have gotten here ahead of us?" Asuna asked, low and tense.

"Maybe," he said, dubious. "I'm not sure _how,_ though. Even if they got out of the city before we did, we should've seen them on the way. Not even Argo the Rat should've fast enough to get here without us even noticing." If they'd been further into the game, he might've suspected someone of using Hiding, but there was no way _anybody_ would have strong enough Hiding yet to stay invisible in broad moonlight.

_Worry about it later,_ Kirito told himself. _We're halfway to Horunka. Take care of business there, then figure out where all the mobs… went… Eh?_

A sound had finally broken the silence, as they sprinted through the forest. A distinctive _clang,_ over and over again, varying in pitch. Not one Kirito had ever heard IRL—but in Aincrad, he'd learned it very well. It was the sound that defined the world, after all.

And there was no reason at all he should've been hearing it right then, right there.

"What's that sound?" Asuna whispered. "It sounds almost like—"

If Kirito hadn't been so distracted, he never would've stumbled right into the clearing that way. As it was, he had to stifle a curse at his carelessness—and then a shocked exclamation, seeing what was already in that clearing. Whatever he might've expected to see, it absolutely wasn't what greeted his eyes.

Any more than he and Asuna were what _they_ expected.

Fallen swords and a couple of shields lay on the ground. Right in the middle, a leafy bag. On one side, a tall, handsome man, pale-skinned and wearing golden armor. He was swinging a heavy two-handed sword, and had apparently been in mid-attack when the two players blundered in. Standing opposite him…

A lithe, beautiful young woman, with dusky skin, dark armor, and a billowing cloak. A saber in one hand and kite shield in the other. Short lilac hair, violet eyes, and ruby earrings. And like her opponent—long, pointed ears.

Over both their heads, the golden exclamation points of Quest NPCs.

In the middle of what was obviously a vicious battle, which from the look of it had killed several on either side already, the two elves now stared at the two players. The two players stared back, just as startled.

"No way…" Kirito breathed. "This… can't be right…"

He knew this scene. He'd been through it before, after all. Part of him was even glad to see the Dark Elf; he'd always hated how the encounter ended, in the beta. But the implications were both startling, and more than a little terrifying. _No, not now! This isn't supposed to be here, not yet, we're not ready—!_

"Kirito-kun…?"

He needed to grab Asuna, and retreat. Whatever mad whim of Kayaba's had changed things, getting involved right then and there was nothing short of suicidal. Kirito could already see the scripted event playing out just as it had in the beta, the Forest Elf's face twisting in a snarl. "Humans, here?! This is no affair of yours! Begone—or I'll kill you, the same as these Dark Elves!"

Just like in the beta. He could see in his mind's eye what the Dark Elf would do next, hear what she'd say, and if they didn't leave _right now_ he wasn't sure they could—

The Dark Elf wasn't angry. Instead of a glare and a quick, sharp bark in the same vein as her opponent, she was looking right at him, eyes wide. Surprise, he thought—and, impossibly, recognition. Then her eyes narrowed, and she lifted her chin in defiance.

"Swordmasters!" she called out, even as her cursor abruptly changed from a golden exclamation point to the yellow inverted triangle of an allied NPC. "In the name of the Last Alliance, for the sake of both our peoples—lend me your swords!"

…_What the hell…?!_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

* * *

So. Here we have it: the first chapter of a new story I've been plotting for some time. As much as I love writing _Monochrome Duet—_and that fic does remain my primary focus—I admit I've found it somewhat limiting, designed as it is around canon gameplay mechanics and suchlike. This fic… is not so limited.

A few things to note at the start. I am very sorry it so closely resembles canon in several places; I rewrote several scenes to try and distance them from the source material, but I just couldn't seem to make it work without covering at least several of the basics. I do hope my spin on things was at least mildly interesting—and as is hopefully obvious from the exposition and general setup, it's not going to be nearly so close to canon now that the initial setup is done.

In case the presence of airships and the Axiom Church doesn't make it clear enough, this is _not_ simply going to be a _Duet_ rehash with Asuna on hand. Several themes that I couldn't do justice in _Duet_ will be revisited, but I assure you the resemblance will otherwise be superficial at best. Among other things, the tone is going to be based more on the _Progressive_ manga than the novels, so you can expect a fair bit more humor. (I hope.)

One thing I want to clarify that may not be clear from the text: the years and ages given are deliberately different from canon. I've pushed the setting back a decade for reasons of technological possibility—we're coming right up on _SAO_'s canon timeframe, after all, and Full-Dive isn't _quite_ in our grasp yet—and the characters are at the ages canon has for them as of the end of the _SAO_ Incident. Kirito and Asuna being a couple of years older at the start makes some aspects a tad easier.

Just as an aside? I originally planned to give Asuna a katana for this fic. I'd run across an interview with Kawahara in which he mentioned he kind of regretted making her a fencer, so I had the idea of changing things up and basing her fighting style on Himura Kenshin, with some interesting twists to character growth along with. In the end, though, I decided that might not be a popular departure; fortunately I've figured out how to work most of the basic ideas into her fencer portrayal here, so it's not a total loss.

The title, for the curious, is taken from of all things a lyric in a fandub of a song from _Aldnoah Zero._ It seemed fitting, given Asuna's motivations and… a plot point I won't spoil just yet.

To those curious about pairings, let me say that for the time being my focus is on developing Kirito, Asuna, and Kizmel as a close-knit team. Where things develop from there… well, who knows. Though the spin I'm going to put on a bit of banter from canon _Progressive_ has… possibilities.

At any rate. This first chapter is… rougher than I'd like, to put it mildly. I think, though, that's largely due to the nature of first chapters and the exigencies of introducing the world of Aincrad, so subsequent chapters should be much smoother. I assure you, the plot that's about to unfold is going to be _very_ different from both canon and _Monochrome Duet._

I can't promise the next chapter will be prompt, as I do need to get back to _Duet._ That being said, I'm rather excited about this project, so… if the Demon Murphy isn't too hard on me, with luck the delay won't be excruciating. In the meantime? Let me know if it's any good, please, or if I've completely lost my touch. _-Solid_


	2. Chapter II: Then We Shall Be Comrades

**Chapter II: "Then We Shall Be Comrades"**

* * *

November 6th, 2032

* * *

"Swordmasters! In the name of the Last Alliance, for the sake of both our peoples—lend me your swords!"

Later, Asuna was going to _hurt_ Kirito for not warning her there was a quest to stumble on right in the middle of the forest. She'd signed on with him to learn how to stay alive, not to be thrown right into a fight without so much as a hint about what to do.

Later. First, she had a fight to win. Why Kirito was simply staring like an idiot at the darker-skinned elf—it was _not_ the time to be distracted by a pretty face, for goodness' sake—she didn't know, but she wasn't going to waste time worrying about it.

_She called for help. That's a quest NPC cursor. And that other elf—is coming this way—!_

"Foolish humans!" the lighter elf snarled, turning to face the players. "If you'd side with Lyusula, prepare to pay the price. Don't say I didn't warn you, girl!"

_Girl?! Ooh…!_

Asuna thought she heard Kirito start to say something. She didn't have time to listen, the fair-skinned elf—a **[Forest Elf Knight]**, according to the text above his HP bar—already coming for her. His heavy, two-handed sword was coming up as he strode toward her, beginning to glow with crimson light.

_I did this before. I know what to do. This time, I have to get it perfect, though. I just—have to be faster!_

Her arm came up, slipping easily into the posture of the first Sword Skill Kirito had taught her. Her rapier came up, she took a step forward, feeling the system tug at her—and she _moved,_ adding her own motion to the skill. A flicker of motion and intent, and suddenly she was on the other side of the Forest Elf and several steps beyond.

In the instant of immobility in the wake of her Linear, she turned her head enough to see the Forest Elf stumble back, light fading from his sword. She couldn't see his expression from that angle… but she _could_ see the sudden smile from the other elf.

The dusky woman—a **[Dark Elf Royal Guard]**—didn't give the Forest Elf a chance to recover. The saber in her hand blurred forward, taking advantage of his stumble to bury itself in his back. "'Girl'?" she taunted, yanking the blade back out. "I didn't think even those of Kales'Oh were so dimwitted as to underestimate a woman." The Dark Elf turned her smile on Asuna. "Well-struck, Swordmaster!"

Asuna felt a rush of pride, and started to raise her rapier in salute—only to yelp and hastily duck, as the Forest Elf unleashed a flashing spin with his heavy sword. It missed her by a hair, and though the Dark Elf took it on her shield, she was still pushed back.

"Mock me at your peril," the Forest Elf growled, already pulling his sword back and up to his shoulder. "One Dark Elf, and two humans? Absurd!" His sword lit up, bright crimson, and this time he wasted no time trying to close the gap on foot. With a roar, he leapt forward, sword swinging down in a wide, diagonal slice.

Not as fast as her attack had been. Her heart still leapt into her throat as she threw herself sideways, convinced she wouldn't be fast enough—

Whether she would've been or not, she never found out. Another battlecry split the air, and an instant before impact something struck the Forest Elf from behind. He hit the ground face-first instead of finishing his Sword Skill, tumbling away with a spray of red particles from his back.

Kirito landed in a crouch, the tip of his sword scraping the ground. "Elite mob," he muttered, quickly straightening. "This is such a bad idea, no time to worry about that now… Asuna, Lady Knight! We'll have to work together for this!"

"Right!" Asuna still had _no_ idea what was going on, but she could see at a glance that the Forest Elf's HP hadn't gone down nearly as much as she liked. And he was already rolling back to his feet, an ugly gleam in his eyes.

"But of course!" The Dark Elf stepped up to Kirito's right, as Asuna moved to his left. "He is strong, but against three of us—Knight of the Forest, if you have any sense, _you_ will withdraw!"

"I told you, do _not_ mock me!" The Forest Elf broke into a fast walk, sword held low and to his right. "I'll have the Key, _and_ your lives!"

If she hadn't still been in shock from the night's events, Asuna wasn't sure she would've survived the next few moments. She'd never fought for her life, had never even picked up a sword before that afternoon. If she'd had time to think about it, sheer terror would've held her in place. Instead—

"Bigot!" she found herself snarling. "You'll pay for mocking _us!"_ Drawing back her rapier, she _attacked._

It was the first real battle of Asuna's life. Afterward, she could only remember scattered moments; here her rapier drove into the Forest Elf's flank in a flash of white light, there she was ducking away from his heavy sword before it could lop off her head. He was grunting then, the Dark Elf's shield bashing into his side, and Kirito was using the stumble to carve a Horizontal across his chest.

Another brutal slash knocked Asuna off her feet and across the clearing, a deep, red gash across her chest. Even as she glimpsed ten percent of her HP falling from the hit, Kirito and the Dark Elf were slashing the Forest Knight from both sides.

One vicious spin knocked her allies off their feet, and it was her turn to charge in with a yell, stabbing the Forest Knight in the leg. She ducked the backhand that came at her in response, and had the satisfaction of seeing _his_ HP lose five percent from the sword point that suddenly emerged from his heart.

Thrust and slash, duck, sidestep; a whirl of steel and bodies like nothing Asuna had ever imagined. The Forest Knight was strong, but there were three of them and only one of him. Over the course of minutes that felt like hours, his health was ground down—until the moment his HP bar turned red.

Then the Forest Knight was using hi whirling slash again, forcing all three of his opponents back. "That two humans and a Dark Elf could bring me to this," he growled. "That treacherous sorcerer… Fine! At least my death will steal your victory! Holy Tree of Kales'Oh!" he cried, pointing his sword toward the night sky. "Grant me the final sacrament!"

Asuna had no idea what that meant. Or why his body suddenly started glowing, a yellow-green aura enveloping him. But Kirito's eyes had suddenly gone wide, his face paling—

"_Stop him!"_

She didn't think. Didn't hesitate. She only obeyed the Dark Elf's command, feet in motion before the dusky girl's words had finished. _I won't let you—!_

Her rapier stabbed deep into the Forest Knight's heart. Kirito's sword cut through his neck, sending his head flying into the dark forest.

The concussion when the Knight's body erupted in yellow-green light and blue shards _still_ blasted the both of them off their feet. Dazzled by the flash, Asuna couldn't even try to reorient before her back slammed hard into a tree, and she fell to the forest floor with a heavy thud.

* * *

It was a good thing avatars in Full-Dive really couldn't feel pain. The dying attack from the Forest Elf, Kirito was quite sure, would've _hurt like hell._ And that was before he hit the ground hard enough to knock another five percent off his HP, inducing a Tumble status in the process.

_I should be counting my blessings,_ he thought muzzily, waiting for the world to stop spinning. _That attack should've killed us outright. I didn't know it was even possible to interrupt it._

…_Not that _any_ of this should be happening at all…._

"…Asuna?" he got out, as his inner ear began to reluctantly settle down. "You okay?"

The answer he got at first was a low groan. "Define 'okay'," his erstwhile partner said, sounding as off-balance as he felt. "I'm still alive… that counts for something, right…?"

"Indeed it does. I fear I'd underestimated humans." A soft chuckle, as footsteps approached Kirito. "Fortunately, so did that Forest Elf…" The Dark Elf's face came into view, looking down at him with a smile. "Here, let me help you. Can you stand?"

Still dazed, Kirito let the elf girl haul him to his feet, and watched as she did the same for Asuna a moment later. After giving the two of them a quick once-over, as if to make sure they really were able to stay on their feet, she walked over to the leafy bag that had been at the center of the fight. With obvious care, she picked it up, checked its contents, and with a sigh of relief tucked it under her arm.

"What's going on here?" Asuna whispered. "Just what kind of quest did you just drag me into, Kirito-kun?"

"…I wish I knew," he murmured back. "This is… not exactly the same as it was in the beta test."

Understatement, that. He'd seen the battle they'd just fought during that period, but it hadn't been in this clearing, and the ending had been a lot worse. The last time he'd seen that particular Dark Elf NPC, she'd been giving his pick-up group a sad smile, just before shattering.

It had haunted Kirito, honestly. He knew she was just an NPC, but _SAO_ made things feel so real, he couldn't help but be sad when the scripted battle had ended in her death.

_But now I have _no_ idea what happens next. Back then, she entrusted us with that bag, and sent us on to a Dark Elf camp. A camp that shouldn't even be on Einsla, and this time she's not dead. Kayaba… did you change everything, on top of trapping us here?_

The Dark Elf was looking around the clearing even as Kirito tried to figure out what was going on, and now she sighed heavily. "So, I was the only one to survive, after all…" She turned to face the two players, and lifted her right hand to her chest in salute. "Thank you, Swordmasters, for your aid. Without your timely arrival, I'm sure I, too, would've fallen. I am Kizmel, Royal Guard and member of the Pagoda Knights. May I have the honor of your names?"

Ah, something familiar. That helped stabilize Kirito, just a little. "My name is Kirito," he said with a bow, carefully enunciating his name for the benefit of the system. "A Swordmaster." Which she'd already know, of course, but it never hurt to observe the formalities when dealing with NPCs. Their dialogue trees could be finicky.

"I'm Asuna," his partner replied, bowing in turn. "Also a Swordmaster."

"Ki-ri-to," Kizmel repeated, as if to herself. The system making sure it had the pronunciation down, he figured. "A-su-na… Pardon me," she added with a wry smile, at the look Asuna was giving her. "Human names are as exotic to me as mine must be to you. I'll not forget them." She tilted her head curiously. "I had heard the ritual to summon the Swordmasters was to be performed today, but with everything else that went wrong, I admit I was skeptical. Even so, I must say I'm surprised to see any of you so far from Origia already. May I ask what brings you here? Not that I'm complaining, by any means."

_Uh._ Kirito blinked, caught flatfooted. Bizarrely changed circumstances or not, he'd expected her to jump right into the quest dialogue, and get them moving to whatever the current equivalent of the Dark Elf camp was. A personal question was just plain _weird._

_And… "everything else" that went wrong? Just what is going on in this version of the quest?_

"Origia isn't a really good place to be right now," Asuna told her, while he was still trying to work out what appropriate response to continue the quest might be. "After what… what Kayaba did…." She looked away, trembling. "It's still chaos back there."

He quickly turned to her, shaking his head. "Asuna," he hissed, "she's not going to be able to understand that. NPC AI isn't that good—"

"Kayaba?" Kizmel said sharply, drawing Kirito's attention back to her. "The human sorcerer, Kayaba Akihiko?" Her eyes had narrowed, not quite a glare but definitely not an expression he wanted directed at him. "Treacherous mage… did he betray the Swordmasters, as well?"

…_What?_

"I'd call trapping us all here when it was supposed to be a _game_ 'betraying us', yeah," Asuna said tightly. Then she started, as if abruptly remembering who—or what—she was talking to, and looked back at the elf. "Um, that is…"

Kizmel looked at the two of them for a long, silent moment. Kirito was left wondering just what was going on with the NPC's AI, and if Asuna's obviously-indecipherable words had just screwed up the quest even more than it already was. _Not her fault. She's new to this, and if I'm trying not to freak out about the situation she must have it ten times worse. I just hope we didn't break anything. The last thing I want now is to be locked out of a big quest like this by accident._

"I think," the Dark Elf said at last, "we have much to discuss." She tapped the bag still tucked under her arm. "At the least, I owe you sanctuary for the night, after you saved my life. And my mission; allowing the Jade Key to fall into the hands of the Forest Elves would be disastrous." Gesturing deeper into the forest, she continued, "Please, let us talk along the way. You said this was supposed to be a game…?"

The course Kizmel led them on was well away from Horunka. That much, at least, made perfect sense to Kirito, given that in the beta elves of any race tended to stay away from human settlements. It did have him more than a little worried, given that it meant going into what was for all intents and purposes uncharted territory, but he didn't see much choice. Whatever was happening now, he had the feeling it would be more dangerous to break away from the questline.

"Of course, I knew about the coming Swordmasters," Kizmel said, as they left the moonlit clearing behind. In the sourceless blue light of the deep forest, she looked even more otherworldly than she had before. "Like as not, even the Axiom Church knew. Little escapes the 'Highest Administrator's' notice in Aincrad, in this age. …Assuming Kayaba did not simply inform her himself, of course."

The way she said "Highest Administrator", like it was a curse, got Kirito's attention. As far as he recalled from the beta, the Elf War quest had been a largely self-contained storyline. He definitely didn't remember any particular connection to the Axiom Church plot. Certainly not enough to get that kind of a personal reaction.

Though that wasn't what really bothered him, and with a glance at Asuna he was sure she felt the same. "So… you know about Kayaba, then?" the fencer said cautiously, ducking under a tree branch.

"Oh, indeed," Kizmel said dryly. "After all, he promised us the Swordmasters' aid in reclaiming Aincrad from the Axiom Church's talons." She shook her head. "I wasn't there, but I am told there was quite the stir when his image appeared before Queen Idhrendis and her councilors. Magic had faded so far since the Great Separation, the Administrator twisted what remained, and here came a man from another world breaching the walls that had been sealed so tightly? We had thought it impossible. And then… he made Her Majesty a bargain."

Kirito listened close, sparing only enough attention for his surroundings to not trip and to—hopefully—spot any mobs before they got too close. _So… Kayaba wrote himself into the game's plot. Why? He said himself his "role" was over… unless he wanted to account for players like us. Maybe he just thought it'd work better if the AI recognized players ranting about him._

"Help arrange the conditions for the Swordmaster summoning ritual, and he would provide us with thousands of warriors with strength akin to the Integrity Knights themselves," Kizmel went on. "Of course we were suspicious, but it did seem reasonable enough for a human to want to free the Archipelago. After all, there are more of your people under the Administrator's heel than mine. When all Kayaba asked from us was a group of volunteers to enter his spell, the risk seemed… acceptable."

_What?_ "Volunteers?" he blurted, almost tripping over a tree root in the process. "The spell? You mean… you know this isn't real?"

"Oh, of course. After all, the purpose of this world is merely a transitory medium between yours and mine." She scowled then. "Or so we were told. Only days ago, when the full ritual began, did we learn how thorough he'd been. To our cost." The elf girl glanced back at them, a sardonic, humorless smile on her face. "Tell me, then. You say he betrayed you, as well. Does that mean you, too, wager your lives even in this world between?"

Kirito could hear Asuna swallow. "…Yes," she whispered. "He… he told us, death is death, no matter the… the world…."

He couldn't help but shiver. The need to simply _get out_ of Origia, with the knowledge of exactly where he had to go for his first objective, had allowed him to avoid thinking about the reality of their situation for a little while. Having Asuna remind him of it, so soon after unexpectedly fighting a battle that should've been well beyond them….

_I think I'm going to be sick._

"Feh. Kayaba is more a monster than even we realized, then." Kizmel sighed. "Though for what it's worth, that very betrayal will make my people more likely to trust you. Truthfully, my comrades had largely concluded the Swordmasters would be just as much our enemy as the Forest Elves."

"Why?" Kirito couldn't help but ask. He almost walked into a low-hanging tree branch a moment later, and gave the tree in question a suspicious glance. He was almost sure that branch hadn't been there before he moved, and while there weren't supposed to be Treants on Einsla, he had ample evidence already of how much things had changed.

_For one thing, if players supported Kizmel in the beta, relations with the Dark Elves were just fine. …And why is Asuna looking at me like I'm an idiot?_

Kizmel raised one lilac eyebrow in his direction. "After the Administrator's treachery, and Kayaba's betrayal? I fear, Kirito, most of my people are likely to regard humans in general as prone to such behavior."

"But you don't?" Asuna asked, pulling her cloak more tightly around her.

"Of course not. You did just save my life, after all." The elf girl smiled ruefully. "And truth be told, I'm more a student of history than many of my comrades. I know better than to believe elves any less capable of treachery than humans. Our greatest betrayal was long before the rise of the Axiom Church."

Kirito wanted to ask more about that. If only to put off thinking about the situation the players had fallen into. Before he could, though, the trees seemed to thin out ahead, heralding another clearing.

_No,_ he realized, looking at the snapped and broken trees at the very edge of the opening. _Not a clearing. Something _hit_ these. Something big. Back in the beta, I only ever saw things like this when—_

"Allow me to make the introductions, please," Kizmel said, leading them into the rough-cleared trench in the middle of the forest. "Between Kayaba's betrayal and our encounter with the Forest Elves, I fear the Captain is… unsettled. I promise you, on my honor as Knight, that you will be safe."

—_An airship crashed,_ Kirito finished his thought, looking at the end of that trench. _…I didn't see that coming._

* * *

Asuna had given the airships at the Origia Aerodrome a longing look, when she and Klein had been wandering the city a few hours and a lifetime before. It hadn't really been that close a look, though, given that she'd been in a hurry and knew they wouldn't be relevant for awhile yet.

She hadn't expected her first close-up with one to be a veritable wreck. Her bow nestled between the trees that had finally stopped her skid through the forest, there was still a faint smell of smoke hanging around her. Between that and the buckled timbers in her hull, it was obvious the airship wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Before the damage, though—even with it, really—Asuna could tell the ship would've been quite a sight, sailing in the sky. About thirty meters long, she was built of dark, oak-like wood, with a sleek shape that looked like she would've been just as much at home in the ocean as in the air. No masts adorned her deck, though; only a single structure at the stern—a "sterncastle", if she remembered right—and a few small shapes she couldn't identify in the dark closer to the bow.

From the landing skids that were mangled and twisted—one of them torn off, lying about a dozen meters behind the ship—the crew had at least known what was coming in time to try and prepare. "Try" being the operative word, she supposed.

"We were intending to scout the island," Kizmel said softly, as they drew closer to the airship. "Up until today, we had our own means of bypassing the Skywall. In addition to my mission, our ship—_Moon__shadow__—_was sent to find out if the Swordmasters were truly going to be summoned, or if Kayaba had lied about that, as well."

"…What happened?" Asuna asked softly. She knew none of what she was seeing was real, that the airship had probably been generated already crashed. Even so, she couldn't help but respond to the Dark Elf's somber tone. If only because focusing on that kept her from thinking too much about her own situation.

Kizmel grimaced. "About noon, the Skywall was suddenly strengthened, defeating even our charms. Shortly after that, we came under attack by a Forest Elf airship. Though _Moon__shadow_ was the better ship, I fear her crew was distracted by the change in the Skywall, and in the end both ships were brought down." She lifted the leafy bag she and the Forest Elf had been fighting over. "I left _Moon__shadow_ with my party of Knights, and we did succeed in retrieving the Jade Key, but during our return journey we were set upon by survivors from the Forest Elf ship. After that, well…."

She didn't finish the sentence. Asuna didn't think she really needed to, given what she and Kirito had found. Clearly, the two groups had mostly wiped each other out, and the two players had simply stumbled on the tail end of the fight.

_Or the start of it, technically,_ she reminded herself, shooting another sharp look at Kirito. _As soon as we're alone, I'm _so_ getting the details out of him. If this is how he's going to treat me, maybe I'm better off going my own way after all!_

Before Asuna could go too far down that train of thought, though, a harsh voice rang out from the airship ahead of them. "Halt!"

Two figures suddenly stood from the shadow cast by the airship's hull, both of them wearing armor similar to Kizmel's but with no cloaks. They also each held a long, curved sword—cutlasses, Asuna thought, as opposed to Kizmel's saber—and from what little she could see at that distance, both of them looked perfectly willing to use them.

"Better do as they say," Kirito whispered, stock-still and with hands carefully away from the hilt of his sword. "Dark Elves tend to be… pretty strong."

_No, really?_ Like she had any intention of doing anything reckless. She was a newbie, not stupid.

Even as she groused to herself, another figure came into sight on the airship's deck. He wore no armor at all, instead a simple but elegant uniform in the same black and purple as the other Dark Elves. Nor did he appear to be armed, though as far as Asuna was concerned his expression was weapon enough.

"Dame Kizmel," the uniformed elf said gruffly, striding down a plank from the deck. "You went out with four other Pagoda Knights, and come back with two humans instead? Explain yourself."

Maybe it was Asuna's imagination, but Kizmel seemed to bristle. "We were not the only ones searching for the Jade Key, Captain Emlas," she said evenly. "We were ambushed by Forest Elf knights. Six of them. They were… quite skilled." She swallowed, but her stare at the airship's captain never wavered. "Though they killed five of the Forest Knights, my comrades fell, as well."

Emlas' mouth twitched in what might've been a brief sympathetic look. "If they were after the Key as well, doubtless they sent only their best. Clearly they had forewarning of today's events…. But what of the humans?" The look he turned on the players was disdainful, bordering on hateful. "You know as well as I the treachery they've committed against us. Better, after what happened to your—"

"These two humans," Kizmel said sharply, "are the only reason I am here bearing the Jade Key. If they had not stumbled upon my battle with the last Forest Knight, I would be dead and the Key would be in the hands of the Forest." She shook her head. "If what these two Swordmasters tell me is true, Captain, we are not the only ones Kayaba betrayed."

He turned his attention back to her, frown easing into a skeptical, measuring look. "And you believe them?"

Asuna shot a quick glance at Kirito, and was left wondering what was going on behind his dark eyes. He'd been putting up a good front, yet from the moment she'd met him there'd been moments his mask had slipped. Now, she couldn't tell if he was really as calm as he looked, or if he was just still in as much shock as she was.

_I wish he'd say something,_ she fumed, trying to stifle her own anxiety at the argument the two elves were having. _Should we just be trying to run? Is this some scripted event? Just give me a clue!_

Kizmel was just starting to open her mouth again, her own expression harsh, when a low growl cut her off.

The fact that Kirito noticeably jumped at the sound was _not_ good for Asuna's piece of mind, but after only an instant she was distracted from him completely. At the top of the plank Emlas was still only halfway down, a furred shape appeared. Low and broad-shouldered, as it emerged into the moonlight she quickly realized it was some kind of large dog.

_No,_ she thought, anxiety going up another notch. _That's a wolf. And it's—coming down—_

Leaping down, more like, reaching the ground from the deck in one casual jump. Then the wolf was running right up to her and Kirito, teeth bared.

"Hold!" Kizmel said quickly, raising one hand. "It's all right, just hold still a moment…."

Asuna had absolutely no intention of doing anything else. No time to run, or even draw a weapon—and besides, a few hours in VR did _nothing_ to erase the instinctive fear any sane human had of a wolf. Her fight-or-flight instincts were aiming toward flight, but her virtual knees had locked up just as well as the real ones would have.

At least she had the satisfaction of seeing Kirito just as plainly anxious, as the wolf stalked over to them. Gait stiff, teeth still bared, it stopped a meter away and sniffed. Stared at the two of them, as if judging them by some standard known only to wolves.

"…Is this a bad time to mention Dark Elves have trained wolves?" Kirito whispered.

"_Yes."_ If it hadn't been for the scrutiny from the elves and the wolf—and a faint recollection of some kind of criminal code programmed into the system—Asuna would've smacked him for that. She had half a mind to do it anyway, the next time they were in a town. _If_ she deigned to put up with him that long.

That thought was driven completely out of her head, though, when the wolf suddenly yipped, sat down, and started wagging its tail. In the blink of an eye, the animal went from fierce predator to dog asking for a bone.

Asuna did blink at that, in fact, and glanced at Kizmel—who was smiling. "I did say they saved my life," she said dryly. "And made no move to take the Key. Also, as you can see, Cavall approves, and you know as well as I he does not trust lightly, either."

Emlas stared at her. Looked at the wolf. Glanced over at the players. This time, his frown was speculative. "I see," he said slowly. Then, "Stand down!" he called out, and immediately the two armored elves straightened and lowered their swords. "I suppose you intend to offer them sanctuary, Dame Kizmel?"

"On my honor as a Knight, I owe them that much," Kizmel said firmly. "_Moon__shadow_ is your ship, of course, but I believe you'll agree that, at the least, we need any information they can give us about what's transpired today. Surely between that and the aid they provided me, shelter for one night is not unreasonable."

"Fair enough," the captain said gruffly. "Come aboard then, all of you," he went on, gesturing toward the deck. "Just do not give me cause to regret this. I've heard of the Swordmasters' supposed strength, but while _Moon__shadow_'s taken losses, I assure you we are more than capable of dealing with two of you."

Ominous. But while Asuna might not have known games very well, she'd done enough research to understand the threat was either empty detail to fit with the story, or a basic caution not to antagonize the NPCs. Either way, she thought, not something she needed to really worry about.

_At least I'll have a safe bed tonight,_ she told herself, walking up the plank with Kirito and Kizmel. _I thought I wasn't ready for that, but after that fight… I'm just so tired. I'll worry about everything else in the morning._

* * *

Sitting on the lowest of three bunks on one side of the cramped cabin, Asuna folded her arms and fixed Kirito with a hard stare. "One reason," she said evenly. "Give me one reason not to kick you out of here. This is _not_ what I signed up for."

Kirito swallowed. From the look on his face, and the way he'd stuffed himself as far back on the opposite bunk as he could, she'd have almost thought he wanted her to carry out the threat. "…Because the elves might not like it if you kicked up a fuss on their ship, after they gave us sanctuary?"

She opened her mouth to retort, furrowed her brow—and stopped. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't just walk out of here on my own, and go back to Origia."

"Panicked mob, rioting in the streets?" he replied, looking a bit more sure of himself this time. "The Anti-Criminal Code prevents direct damage in a town, but I can think of a few ways right off the top of my head that things could go bad anyway. Starting with the fact that the panicking started right by the edge of the island."

"…Urk." It took only a moment for Asuna to follow that suggestion to its conclusion, and her head fell. No, going back to a city with twenty thousand players having a collective freak out probably wasn't a good idea. Even if she'd been able to find an inn, getting to it would've been just too risky.

Which, lack of alternatives aside, didn't change her current situation. They'd been given sanctuary, all right—in the form of Kizmel leading them to a small cabin down narrow corridors, before heading somewhere else to have a meeting with the captain. A cabin with six bunks stacked three high, maybe a meter between stacks, made of the same dark wood as the rest of the ship. On top of the cramped confines, it was dark, the sourceless blue glow of _SAO_'s night seeming oddly muted, almost flickering.

Which meant Asuna was stuck in a small cabin, a long way from any other real people, in the dark. With a guy about her own age, whom she'd only met a handful of hours before. If the situation hadn't been so horrible otherwise, she _would_ have gone somewhere else.

_Well, I threw the dice,_ she reminded herself. _I'll just have to trust he really isn't a creep. …And speaking of trust…._

She lifted her head again, looking back at Kirito. He flinched, almost making her laugh. Almost. "Fine. So we're stuck here. At least tell me _why?_ You said we were going to a small village, not that we were about to run right into a fight with a—a—"

"An elite mob," he finished for her. And winced, seeing the look on her face.

"Yeah. That." Asuna made a mental note to grill him on gamer terminology when they had time. If their partnership lasted the night. "I'm pretty sure that last attack could've killed us, Kirito-kun. That is _not_ what I had in mind for a first quest!"

"That would be because it shouldn't have been." Kirito quickly raised his hands. "No, really! I honestly had no idea that was going to happen. I mean, okay, I knew the basic scenario, but that shouldn't have been _here._ In the beta, the Elf War campaign quest didn't even start until Third Island, Sandoria. I was expecting to fight Little Nepenthes for a minor quest ingredient, not run into an elite mob and a campaign quest."

…She was really starting to hate the position she was in. It had been a kind of forbidden thrill, going around with a guy she didn't know. Now her life depended on it, and she couldn't know if he was telling the truth. Not yet.

_If he's not, it's too late to worry about it anyway,_ she told herself firmly. _Assume he is. We're both trapped in here anyway. Just… watch, and listen._ Taking a deep breath, trying in vain to calm herself, she forced herself to nod. "Okay. So you weren't expecting the fight. Why didn't you tell me to just run for it?"

The look Kirito gave her for that suggested he was wondering if she was crazy, and too afraid to say so. "…You did kind of rush in first," he pointed out cautiously. "I've never seen anybody move so fast. Between that and how surprised I was, I didn't exactly have a chance to pull us out."

Urk. Even more annoying than wondering if she could trust him was realizing she had _no_ defense against that one. Hunching her shoulders, Asuna had to look away.

"Either way," he said then, "I'm… not really sure we _could_ have retreated, by that point." Something about his tone forced her to look at him again, and she was met with a deep, troubled frown. "Asuna. It's not just that there shouldn't have been elves on Einsla. Like I said, I knew the basic scenario from the beta—and what we got wasn't it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we were supposed to be able to choose a side," he said quietly. "In the beta, Kizmel reacted the same way the Forest Knight did, by telling players to get lost. Whichever elf the player decided to help anyway would turn friendly, but only once a decision had been clearly made." Kirito slowly shook his head, clasping his hands under his chin. "Kizmel shouldn't have just asked us for help on her own, and the system _definitely_ shouldn't have automatically accepted the quest without our input."

"Oh." Now that she thought about it, that had been kind of weird. "…You're sure it's not something carried over from the beta? You said you did the quest—and I'm assuming," she added, sending another sharp glance his way, "you picked the pretty girl."

Practically the first genuine satisfaction Asuna had had since Kayaba's terrifying announcement was the look on his face when that jab went home. Even in the dark, she could see the sudden wide eyes, and the way his mouth moved as if he was trying to defend himself but couldn't get any words out.

"W-well," Kirito said finally, looking away as if the wooden wall—bulkhead?—were suddenly more interesting, "I did choose Kizmel, yeah…. But because she's a Dark Elf, not because she's a girl! I like dark colors!"

Probably true, from the color of his gear. And also, if she was any judge, completely and totally irrelevant to the point. _Ha! Got you! Boys…._

"…It's not like it mattered that much anyway," he muttered, breaking into Asuna's moment of smug vindication. "In the beta, that was an unwinnable fight, ended when Kizmel sacrificed herself to save the player party."

Just like that, the wind was taken right out of her sails, and she was suddenly very aware that even belowdecks on the Dark Elf airship, November was cold. Clutching her cloak tighter, she tried to remind herself that Kizmel was just an NPC, however lifelike. It didn't make any sense to suddenly be spooked by the idea that if things had gone "normally", the elf that had given them sanctuary would've been dead.

"So no," Kirito continued, shaking himself, "I don't think it's anything to do with the beta. I think Kayaba just changed things around. Besides, my beta test character data didn't carry over to the retail version… and do you have any idea how annoying it was, trying to reconstruct my avatar? I was twenty minutes late getting in thanks to that…"

Oof. Asuna could almost sympathize on that one. She hadn't bothered with much avatar customization, but she'd been in a hurry. If she'd had the time, she absolutely would've tried to figure out the options available, daunting as they were. Even knowing the system, she could imagine it had been a pain for him.

_All of it pointless anyway, after what Kayaba did. Why did he give us our own faces here? Why…? And that reminds me._

She didn't really want to be reminded of it. She never wanted to think about it again. But she had to, and deep in an airship that wasn't supposed to be there and thus probably wouldn't be found by other players, this was probably the best opportunity she was going to get.

So, taking a deep breath, Asuna gave Kirito another level stare. "Earlier, you said there would be no rescue. Why not?"

For a long moment, he was silent, just staring down at the wooden deck. When the moment stretched on to almost a minute, she took in a breath to snap at him—then abruptly closed her mouth again. It was hard to see, in the oddly dim light, but she was pretty sure his still-clasped hands were shaking.

_Of course they are, stupid,_ she thought, mentally slapping herself. _He's just as stuck as I am. He's probably… just as scared as I am._

Finally, Kirito swung his legs up onto the bunk and stared up at the one above him. "If Kayaba was telling the truth—and if he wasn't, I think we'd be out already—the authorities can't take the chance. No matter what their computer experts come up with. There's about ten different ways a rescue attempt could go, and only in two of them do the players get out alive."

Blunt, and honest. Another time Asuna might've thanked him. "…Explain," she said, when she was sure her voice wouldn't shake too badly. "Please."

Still staring up, Kirito began counting off on his fingers. "Say they try it on one person. Maybe nothing happens, and Kayaba doesn't notice or care. Maybe nothing happens, but he decides to hit the kill switch just because they tried. Maybe they accidentally set it off themselves. _Maybe_ they get one person out, and Kayaba doesn't notice before they do it for everybody else at once. Or maybe he does notice, and… well. One chance in five we don't all die. Try it on everybody at once—"

"Stop!" Shuddering, she tried to fight back the tears. "I get it. If it doesn't work perfectly, the first time, then…"

Asuna was top of her class. She could do the math. _Twenty thousand people. They… they can't risk killing us all at once. Which means… which means Kayaba was right. The only way out… is to fight for ourselves. Across a hundred islands, with hazards even the beta testers don't know._

_I'm going to be sick._

This wasn't what she'd wanted, when she found out about _Sword Art Online._ This wasn't at all what she'd wanted. She was freer than she'd ever been—and all it had cost her was the chance to die if she made the slightest slip.

Probably the only thing that kept her from breaking down then and there, despite a near-total stranger as a witness, was the cabin hatch creaking open. "I'm sorry I took so long," Kizmel said, slipping in. "Captain Emlas is not technically my superior, but he does have a vested interest here—no, you do _not_ come in here," she added, nudging a furred snout out the hatch so she could close it. "There is barely room for us, let alone a wolf… oh, I have _no_ idea how he ever put up with you."

Kirito quickly sat up again, and if he wiped his sleeve across his eyes before facing the girls again, well, Asuna wasn't going to tell anyone. "The captain wasn't happy?"

Sighing, Kizmel shook her head. "Truthfully, I suspect Captain Emlas is seldom happy about anything. In his defense, he does have a point today…. Ah, my apologies for the darkness. I fear _Moon__shadow_'s core crystal was cracked in the crash. Low light is the only ship's function working at all."

_So, there's an in-game explanation for the light?_ Eagerly jumping on the distraction, Asuna cleared her throat. "Core crystal?"

"Power source for airships," Kirito explained, looking just as grateful for the change in topic. "How much they do depends on the airship, but they all handle the lift field that keeps the ship up." He frowned thoughtfully. "I think on a Dark Elf airship they're tied right into the hull somehow, though I never knew why."

"They are," Kizmel confirmed. She tapped her belt, letting it fall away, and moved to put both the saber it held and her shield on a rack on the far bulkhead. "Crystallized magic from the Holy Trees, it powers the lift field, engines, and cannons. And the lighting," she added with a rueful smile. "More importantly, it sustains the ship herself, away from wood and water."

Asuna blinked. "…You mean the ship is alive?"

"Oh, indeed. We elves, Dark and Forest alike, are forbidden to cut living wood, and we cannot live long without it." The elf girl chuckled, reaching up to the leaf-shaped clasp that fastened her cloak. "Humans may try their hands at making ships of steel, but we elves are bound to the Wood, always."

That was really a fascinating bit of lore. Asuna wanted to pursue it—anything to hold off the nightmares a little longer—but that train of thought was immediately and completely derailed by the result of the elf's seemingly innocuous action. First a quick flash of light, dazzling in the dark. Then—

Dark Elves seemed to be eminently practical where warfare was concerned. Their armor, Asuna had already noticed, had none of the gratuitous form-fitting or cut-outs she'd always associated with fantasy stories. Their sleepwear, she learned abruptly, not so much. Especially considering it was November, and Aincrad's weather seemed to reflect that.

A surprisingly sheer, decidedly low-cut black nightgown was not what she'd expected out of the Dark Elves. Nor had she realized, with the modest and practical armor, just how generous a figure Kizmel actually had.

Not the sort of thing she likely would've paid any attention to even then, other than how cold the nightgown looked, were it not for Kirito's presence.

Truthfully, Asuna was torn. On the one hand, the poor guy arguably deserved the distraction, after the day they'd had. On the other hand, the way he'd gone stock-still, staring in something akin to shock at Kizmel, set off her "pervert" instincts pretty thoroughly. It wasn't _Kizmel_'s fault they were in this, after all. She didn't deserve to be stared at like that.

…_He gets to live. For now._ Instead of snapping, Asuna only sharply rapped her knee and cleared her throat. When Kirito jumped, turning wide eyes on her, she gave him the best imitation of her mother's _You Know Better Than That_ stare she could manage.

His "Eep!" and quick look toward the bulkhead satisfied her. More or less. It also got Kizmel's attention. Pausing in her move toward the bunk above Asuna, she glanced quizzically at Kirito. Over at Asuna, and the look still on her face. Then briefly down at herself.

The elf girl's lips quirked in small smile. Her eyes darted back to Asuna for a second, before she turned to give Kirito what Asuna would've sworn was a thorough checking out in turn.

When Kizmel looked back at her, raising one eyebrow, it was all Asuna could do not to drop her jaw. _Did… did an NPC just _troll_ me?_

At least Kirito hadn't actually seen it. He was still staring fixedly at the bulkhead, ears visibly glowing, and hadn't caught any of the strange byplay. Which, really, was probably the only reason Asuna didn't start flaring up herself. In desperation to keep it that way, she reached for the first distraction she could think of. "So, about that wolf!" she said quickly. "Dark Elves train them?"

"Ah. Yes, we do. Or at least," Kizmel said wryly, "so the wolf handlers claim. Half the time I think they lie about the training, the other half I think the 'wolves' are dogs with delusions of grandeur. Cavall certainly behaves like one, often as not…" She turned to sit on Asuna's bunk, the player scooting over a few centimeters to give her room. "I suppose it's as well, now, with his master gone."

Asuna felt a pang, even knowing the wolf's master had been just another NPC. "He died…?"

"Mm." Kizmel nodded somberly. "In _Moonshadow_'s crash. …Truthfully, I'm still in shock. He was my brother-in-law." She sighed. "I admit I never liked him, but he was my sister's husband after all. I don't know what to say to her, when we finally return to Sandoria…"

Kirito let out a choked sound, and both girls turned to look at him. No longer staring at the wall, his eyes were shining suspiciously. "You… have a sister, Kizmel?" he said, voice hoarse.

"I do. My twin, Tilnel. She's an herbalist, so she remained safely at our encampment on Sandoria…" She trailed off, glancing from one player to the other. "Kirito? Asuna? Is something wrong?"

Clenching her hands, Asuna couldn't hold back the tears. "M-my brother," she got out. "He—he helped me come here, and now—I can't even see him, and I may never again, and—and—!"

She thought she heard Kirito choke out something similar. She wasn't sure, though, caught up in the rush of fear and grief from which she could no longer look away. Her brother—the only one in her family who'd _understood—_was just on the other side of a polymer helmet, and a world so far away she could barely imagine seeing it again.

She wasn't even sure what hurt more. That she couldn't see him—or the guilt she was terrified he'd feel, for having helped her get into _SAO_ in the first place.

An arm suddenly wrapped around her, pulling her close against against soft warmth. Her shoulder bumped into another at the same time, and Asuna realized Kizmel had pulled her and Kirito into a tight hug. "I'm sorry," the elf girl whispered. "I am so, so very sorry. I know what it is to be away from family, and it is never easy." Kizmel pulled them closer, so their heads were all touching. "I know not what the future may hold, but I promise you this: tonight, you will _not_ be alone.

"For such brave warriors, I can do no less."

Abandoning herself to that warmth, that promise, Asuna buried her face in Kizmel's shoulder, and let herself cry.

* * *

_So. Kayaba is a crueler man even than we had imagined. At least our people were volunteers who knew this was no game, even if we never guessed the trap._

Sitting on _Moon__shadow_'s deck, Kizmel pulled her cloak closer around herself as she looked up at the stars. The two human warriors who had so unexpectedly come to her rescue had fallen asleep, finally. She found herself unable to do the same, in the wake of their grief and terror.

_I'm fortunate to have Tilnel here with me, however separated we may be at this moment. Those two—and who knows how many like them, in Origia—have no such comfort._

Three years. That was the best estimate for how long it would take the Swordmasters to fight their way through the Archipelago, and reach Centoria. A brief span for the Dark Elves, an agonizing eternity for humans of their age. If they survived, and Kizmel was sadly certain many of them would not.

"Still worried about those Swordmasters?" Quiet footsteps on the oak deck accompanied the gruff voice, and in a moment Captain Emlas stood beside her. "I hardly see why those human children have your attention, Dame Kizmel."

"They did save my life, and my mission along with," Kizmel reminded him dryly. "And I would hardly call them children. By our people's measure, perhaps, but by their own they'd be judged old enough to stand on their own." She shook her head. "Young, yes. But not children."

Young, and awkward. She'd found their byplay when Kirito saw her dressed for sleep endearing, truthfully. She only wished it had not so soon led to tears.

Emlas grunted. "Perhaps not children," he allowed, looking over the few other Dark Elves still about so late, keeping watch with smooth precision. "But not warriors, either, despite what Kayaba promised. They saved your life by chance, Dame Kizmel, and whatever your 'honor' might demand, it would be kinder to send them back to Origia come dawn."

"Is that what you see? You're a sailor, Captain, not a warrior—and you were not there to see the battle." Kizmel looked back up to the twin moons, crawling across the night sky beyond the Skywall. "They may well be new to battle, but I tell you this: only souls born to the blade could have so defeated a Forest Knight who had slain so many of our own. They may not be warriors now, but given them only a little time, and that one knight will be only the beginning."

Indeed, Kirito already moved with the confidence of someone who knew the blade. He still relied upon the charms humans called Sword Skills, yes, yet Kizmel knew many of her own order—herself included—who had hardly abandoned them. And Asuna….

_Like a shooting star in the night,_ she thought, remembering the moment the hooded girl entered the battle. _Never have I seen a sword move so fast. If she can but muster the confidence, Asuna will be one of those leading the Swordmasters to freedom._

"Potential they may have," Emlas said then, grudgingly. "But can they be trusted? Betrayal by one human sorceress led us to turn to another for aid, and then that sorcerer betrayed us in turn." He shook his head. "Fools we'd be to place our trust in humans now, Dame Kizmel. Your own brother-in-law died this very day to that betrayal."

That barb struck deep, and Kizmel winced. Though she'd never approved of the man, she knew too well how her sister would be hurt by the news.

_But that is still not their fault._

Standing, Kizmel turned to the dour captain. "You would judge all humanity by the actions of a few?" Again she shook her head, feeling an incongruous smile tugging at her lips. "You don't know much of what led to the Last Alliance, do you, Captain?"

"You said yourself, I'm a sailor, not a warrior." Emlas snorted. "I know there was no call for such as me in those days—and that its outcome is what led to my calling in the first place. Such was the 'reward' the last time we allied with Men."

"When we return to the Capital, I suggest you visit the Royal Library," she said dryly. "Men were the least of our problems then. In the meantime?" She turned to the hatch leading down into the ship. "Give these two a chance, Captain. They may surprise you."

Leaving Emlas to grunt again, Kizmel slipped below, heading back for the cabin she now shared with the two humans. The captain could make his own decisions in the morning; for now, she would keep her own promises.

_He may trust or not as he will. Whether he sees it or not, we have no choice but to risk trust in the Swordmasters. We cannot defeat Quinella ourselves, and with the Forest's mad plans we may never have the chance to face her at all without them._

_And I would know the truth of my dreams. Why did I already know Kirito's face…?_

* * *

November 7th, 2032

* * *

"So that's where all the Little Nepenthes were," Kirito murmured, keeping his voice as low as possible as he peered through the undergrowth. "I thought the fight last night had just scared them away or something. Or that they'd been caught up in it and killed…"

"Would that had been the case," Kizmel replied, just as quietly. "Clever of the Forest Elves… though I wonder if they realize they've tipped their hand. Now we know their crystal is still intact."

"Yeah, great," Asuna groused. "But first we have to get through these things to reach the ship. Kirito-kun, didn't you say they hunt by smell?"

"Yeah. And I think I see the ones that can summon more, too. I didn't think there'd be this many of them. Maybe somebody else has been farming around here…?"

The three of them were crouched in the brush, about a kilometer from _Moon__shadow_'s crash site. From what the Dark Elves had been able to determine during the previous day's fighting, the Forest Elf airship they'd engaged had gone down somewhere in that general area. In what condition, they hadn't been able to say, but they had to take the chance it was reasonably intact.

"_Dame Kizmel granted you sanctuary for the night,"_ Captain Emlas had said, that morning in his cramped cabin. _"That much was her right as a Pagoda Knight. As captain of the ship, however, it is my decision whether you stay. To be blunt, I do not trust Swordmasters—but Dame Kizmel tells me you are victims as well. Or claim to be,"_ he'd added pointedly. _"So if you wish to earn continued safe harbor, I will give you the chance."_

There hadn't been an exclamation point over his head, but Kirito had seen well enough that that had been a quest prompt. _"What do you need done, Captain?"_

"_My ship is dying,"_Emlas had said bluntly. Laying a piece of parchment on his desk, he'd begun quickly scribbling with a fountain pen. _"__The core crystal will last perhaps three more days, at best, and is not sufficient to lift _Moonshadow._ As the crystal is Wood-aligned, one from a human ship is unlikely to work; your people favor Cold Iron. Therefore…."_

"_The Forest Elf ship,"_ Asuna had finished, before Kirito could. _"You want us to steal their core crystal."_

"_Indeed. Do that, and I will allow you to remain with _Moonshadow._"_ He'd handed Kirito the parchment, and with a quiet chime his quest log had dutifully updated itself._ "At least until the first Skywall falls, and we're able to begin our return journey."_

Not much of a choice, really. As long as the elves were feuding in the area, it just wasn't safe to go back to the original plan of working on Horunka quests. Kirito was just relieved that Kizmel had immediately volunteered to go with them. Even if the Forest Knight they'd defeated the night before had been the strongest of the surviving Forest Elves, the idea of taking the fight to their ship with just Asuna—a newbie, however talented—for backup had given him the shivers.

Which was how the three of them had come to their current predicament. After returning to the site of the previous night's battle, Kizmel had led them back along the Forest Knight's trail. According to her, the Forest Elves had been in such a hurry that they hadn't even covered their tracks.

Sloppy of them, she'd noted with some derision, and Kirito didn't exactly disagree. He'd have thought himself that "Forest" Elves would've been more careful in their element.

Yet not so sloppy they hadn't left a trap. He remembered farming Little Nepenthes in the beta test, and that had been by taking on groups of about three at a time. There must've been a couple of dozen ahead of them now, at least four of them the rare—supposedly—type that, if not attacked _very_ carefully, summoned reinforcements.

"Well," Kizmel said, after about five minutes of observing the situation and hoping the Nepenthes would wander off on more normal mob patterns. "We'll hardly make any progress simply staring at them…. Kirito, Asuna, I trust you know how to fight these creatures?"

"Yeah," Kirito said immediately. _Well, I do, and I can explain to Asuna. That rapier of hers will be good for this kind of work, and she's certainly fast enough._ He tried to ignore the sudden feeling of a glare on the side of his head, focusing on the elf girl. "You have an idea?" She was a quest NPC, after all. It wouldn't be surprising if she had info for getting past a tricky spot.

"I do." Kizmel lifted the hood of her cloak, pulling it up over her head. "My Mistmoon Cloak can conceal me from the eye. It works best at dawn and dusk, but the day is still young enough to give me some measure of effect." She nodded toward the Nepenthes. "I will swing wide around them. Even if the Forest Elves are influencing them with their ship's core crystal, they will have guards beyond. If I distract them, they're likely to try to call the Nepenthes to them."

"Then we hit them from behind," Asuna said slowly. "Pick them off while they're confused…?" She frowned, the expression barely visible under her own hood. "Will you be okay, Kizmel?"

Kizmel smiled. "The Forest Elves sent their best yesterday, to their cost. Those that remain… well. The day I cannot lead a few sailors on a merry chase through the forest is the day I give up my knighthood." She pulled her cloak close and turned away, her outline wavering. "Wait for them to move, then strike. Carefully—I'd not lose more comrades to the Forest."

Even her voice seemed to disappear under her cloak, and with it her footsteps. After just a couple of seconds, the only thing to mark her passage was a light rustling of leaves, then even that was gone.

"…Okay. I guess we're committed now." The tone of Asuna's voice forced Kirito to look, and as he'd feared she was glaring at him. Not as badly as the previous night, but still enough to make him flinch. "Now that you've volunteered me for something else—and we're going to _talk_ about that later—what's the plan here, Kirito-kun?"

Trying to ignore the sharp edges of her gaze, he quickly gestured toward the Nepenthes. "Short version? They hunt by smell. They don't hear very well, and I don't think they can see at all. They spit acid, so try to dodge when you can, that eats armor pretty fast…. Otherwise, basically, just hit them as hard and fast as you can. But make sure it's the body." He pointed to the round fruit at the end of the stalk on one particular Nepenthe. "Hit that, and it'll burst. The gas from it doesn't hurt, but it does attract more Nepenthes."

Which would be bad. Something he hoped Asuna wouldn't have to experience directly. He remembered _he'd_ gotten swarmed under by them, the first time he'd attempted the quest that rewarded the Anneal Blade in the beta. Even without pain sensation, having his avatar melted by corrosive attacks had been _very_ disturbing. Now it still wouldn't hurt, but that wouldn't be much consolation when respawning was no longer possible.

Asuna was silent for a moment, crouched there in the bushes. Then she nodded once, firmly. "Dodge the acid, hit the body, don't hit the fruit. Got it."

_Whew._ Kirito still wasn't at all sure about being partly responsible for someone else's safety, but at least she seemed to be a quick study. He'd known players during the beta who hadn't been nearly so quick to understand. _Huh… I wonder how many of them got the retail version?_

He quickly shied away from that thought, and its implications. Instead he brought his attention back to his partner, opened his mouth to make an inane comment to break the silence—and paused, seeing the troubled frown on her face.

"Kirito-kun," Asuna said softly. "About… last night." She hesitated, then seemed to push herself to go on. "Is that… normal, for an NPC?"

For a second, Kirito thought she was talking about the fight with the Forest Knight. Then he remembered, much later, Kizmel's behavior aboard _Moon__shadow__,_ when the two of them had finally broken down from the day's events. When the realization that he was completely cut from Suguha had really sunk in, with everything it meant.

Honestly, her question wasn't anything he hadn't thought of himself, since waking up that morning. Being hugged by an NPC was an experience he definitely hadn't had in the beta, and for that matter he'd been pretty sure the system's anti-harassment code would prevent it entirely. That, on top of Kizmel's behavior on first seeing them….

"No," he said finally. "It isn't. But…." He frowned, thinking back to some of the articles Argus had released between the end of the beta and opening day of the retail version. "I remember Kayaba commented in an interview that they were going to tweak the NPC AI based on feedback from the beta. And the system _is_ supposed to pick up on emotion to some degree."

"So it was just… some kind of automated response?" Asuna looked away. "…I see."

_Yeah. It can be hard to accept NPCs aren't really people. Must be even worse for somebody who's new to gaming in general._ Kirito wanted to say something, anything, to cheer her up. Unfortunately he _really_ didn't have enough points invested in his social skills, and—

A rustle beyond the bushes interrupted his musings, and both of them looked up in time to see the Little Nepenthes beginning to move away. "Kizmel must've gotten their attention. Let's go!"

It was going to take him awhile to get used to just how _fast_ Asuna was, when she put her mind to it. He'd barely even spoken before she was in motion, first in a low run, then blazing like a meteor as she triggered a Linear halfway there. Before any of the Nepenthes could begin to react to the sudden attack from behind, her rapier was already plunging into the rearmost of them.

Not that Kirito was much slower. His own Rage Spike carried him across the gap a breath behind Asuna, carving a deep line up the back of a Nepenthe. Not as deep a strike as hers, but he judged it about equal in damage just from surface area.

That got the plant monsters' attention pretty thoroughly, and in a moment he and Asuna were both dodging back and away from the tentacle-like vines suddenly flailing their way—not to mention a sudden spray of acid from the one Kirito had hit.

Trained reflexes from the beta let him sidestep that without too much trouble, and a quick glance to his right showed him Asuna gracefully pirouetting away from another. Mid-spin, she slashed at the vines; though her rapier wasn't at its best with such attacks, it worked well enough against fragile targets.

The trick, Kirito reflected as he hit his own target with a quick Horizontal, was to not aggro too many at once. The Nepenthes were only two levels above them, with fairly predictable attacks. From what he could tell, the mass they were dealing with was really several groups of three or four; if Kizmel's guess were correct, and the Forest Elves were somehow influencing them, it ought to be possible to kite them.

_So long as Kizmel keeps the Forest Elves distracted,_ he reminded himself, ducking a vine that tried to slap him in the face. _If she doesn't, this could get ugly really quick—there!_

He had to hop over an attempt by another Nepenthe to trip him, but it gave him just the opening he needed to whip another Horizontal right across his current target's mouth. With a hiss that defied exact description, the plant monster recoiled, shuddered, and shattered to azure pieces.

That gave him just a moment of breathing space, enough time to check on Asuna. Who was doing just fine, he quickly found, her rapier stabbing deep into her own foe's main body. "Yuck!" she said, as it exploded. "Plant monsters with vines… what kind of pervert designed this game?! There'd better not be tentacle monsters later!"

Kirito almost mentioned the Ignition Squids he'd seen mentioned in a dev blog. Almost. The look Asuna gave him when he opened his mouth stopped him in his tracks—and the sudden sizzle as another Nepenthe took advantage of his distraction to spray his left sleeve with acid derailed anything else he might've said anyway.

Yelping, he shook his arm and spun to attack the offending monster. Yelped again, hastily lowering the angle of his strike, when he spotted the fruit hanging from the Nepenthe's stalk. The resulting blow was clumsy and weak, though it did do the job of making the mob recoil.

_Besides,_ he thought, bouncing on his feet to regain his balance, _she probably already knows about those anyway. Didn't she say she'd read all the pre-release info?_ Even if she hadn't understood the technical details, she should've at least grasped the basics of the monster designs well enough.

Come to think of it, maybe that was half of why she was mad. If the Nepenthes were that bad, the cephalopod monsters were likely to be worse.

Well. If they were, Kirito was at least fairly confident Asuna would be able to handle them by the time the players reached the islands that had them. As the two of them tore into the Nepenthes, ducked around and jumped over thrashing vines, and dodged acid sprays, the fencer was doing at least as much damage as he was. Her movements might not have been as practiced as a beta tester's would've been, but her sheer speed meant every strike that hit, hit hard.

Alone, it would've taken him twenty minutes to thin out that crowd of mobs. Though they weren't that strong, he'd have had to draw them out as far away from each other as possible. With Asuna's help, they had the original group cut down by at least half in five minutes, without having once triggered reinforcements.

_More like, I wouldn't have risked taking on this many at all._ Batting aside a vine that tried to whip his face with his free arm, Kirito buried his sword in the Nepenthe's body before it could bring any other vines into play. _Too bad Horunka ended up a no-go. With her help, finishing the Anneal Blade quest would've been a cinch. As it is, I haven't even seen—wait. Is that…?_

With a quiet snarl, Asuna stabbed another Nepenthe through the mouth, and yanked her blade back through the resulting fragments. "It looks like the rest are going for Kizmel's diversion," she said, after a quick glanced around. "Do you think—wait, what are you doing?"

He didn't answer, too focused on lining up his left arm on one of the retreating Nepenthes. _Never tried this in the beta, but I don't see any reason this shouldn't work…._

"Excuse me? I asked what you're doing. Kirito-kun? Hey, isn't that one of the special kind? Hey, _listen_ when someone's talking to you—Are you crazy—?!"

With a twitch of his wrist, Kirito's grapnel shot out at the Nepenthe. It caught on the object hanging from the end of its stalk, cable wrapping tight. A quick tug proved it was secure, and with a yank he started the grapnel retracting—ripping the end of the Nepenthe's stalk right off with it.

He caught it as the grapnel clicked back into place on his wrist, and grinned. "Gotcha!"

"…Have you completely lost your mind?" Asuna hissed, glaring at him. "You told me _not_ to hit that!"

"This isn't one of those fruits." Triumphantly, Kirito held the scarlet fruit he'd snagged where she could see it more clearly. "This is the key item for one of the quests I wanted to do around here. After how last night turned out, I didn't think I'd have a chance to get one, especially with how low the drop rate is. This'll be a big help."

For a long moment, she just stared at him, unblinking. Then, slowly, she shook her head. "Yeah. Great. Good for you. You do realize you've just—what's the word—'aggroed' that entire group of them? Meaning we have more work to do for _this_ quest?"

Blinking, Kirito turned to look. Sure enough, the Nepenthe he'd just hurt was running their way, leg-like roots churning, and three of its friends were coming right along with. "…Oops?"

Asuna sighed, raising her rapier again. "You? Are _impossible."_

* * *

Being the one leading the Forest Elves on a chase through the woods, as opposed to being the one being chased, was a satisfying role reversal indeed. Doing so against mere sailors, rather than the skilled knights of the previous day, made it all the better.

_Clearly, they sent their best against us yesterday,_ Kizmel thought, ghosting through the trees toward the crashed Forest Elf airship. _Had they any Knights left, doubtless they'd have come searching for me by now. …At least our own sacrifices were not in vain._

Sacrifices repaid in blood. On top of the battle from which two humans had saved her, she'd now eliminated three of Forest Elves' remaining men-at-arms, in a fashion that was almost painfully easy. Skilled as those of the Forest were at influencing the denizens of the wood to do their bidding, they had nothing akin to a Dark Elf's Mistmoon Cloak.

Ambush tactics were not Kizmel's preference. Under the circumstances, however, she few qualms hunting down her foes. Not after what they'd done.

_Hopefully the chase gave Kirito and Asuna the advantage they needed against those Little Nepenthes. Not that such measures would've been required, if Captain Emlas had released some of his men to aid us…._

Unfair to the captain, that. Probably. Technically, securing the Jade Key was Kizmel's mission, not his, and he did need to consider his ship's welfare over all else. Nonetheless, it had been hard for her not to point out to him the mission she now pursued was critical to said welfare.

_Well. There's naught to be gained from sulking now, is there. Kirito and Asuna should be along soon, and in the meantime… let us see about that ship._

Sleeker and smaller than _Moon__shadow__,_ Kizmel noticed when the ship came into her view. Something she hadn't had a chance to notice during the air battle, though in hindsight it explained some things. Such as why the Forest Elves were relying on monsters for defense. Clearly, they had fewer trained to fight afoot than _Moon__shadow__._

The ship was also in noticeably worse shape. _Moon__shadow_ would be fit to fly again in perhaps a couple of days, if the core crystal could be replaced and enough fallen wood gathered to patch the hull. The Forest Elven ship's keel was broken, her bow splintered by a direct impact with a rather large boulder. Clearly, that was one airship that would never again bother the Kingdom of Lyusula.

Kizmel wasn't terribly surprised. Given that evidence suggested the ship's core crystal was intact—and this close, she could feel the crystal's power, warm and steady—she'd known there had to be another reason the Forest Elves hadn't lifted again.

That they would have if they could, she was sure. Between sheer bad luck in crash locations and the path of the crash itself, the Forest Elf airship had much less in the way of cover than _Moon__shadow__._ Even if she and her new companions hadn't tracked them down, it was obvious some Swordmaster or group thereof would've stumbled across them soon enough.

_Which might have had interesting consequences. I'd like to think those two are representative of their people, but even the best might make unwise judgments under such duress. …Speaking of, I hope they are __not__ in trouble. With how long it took me to finish those chasing me, I would've expected them to be here by now._

To her relief, she'd only been watching the Forest Elf ship for perhaps five minutes when her ears caught the faint sound of bodies moving through the brush. Turning back the way she'd come, she soon saw Kirito and Asuna creeping up. Their clothing was perhaps a bit torn—Kizmel recognized acid burns well enough—but they were both well enough to her eyes.

_They did well, to receive so little injury,_ she thought, glancing briefly at the still-disorienting bars hanging in one corner of her vision. _Though Asuna appears a bit exasperated. I wonder what happened?_

When the two were close, Kizmel drew back her hood. "There you are," she said, pitching her voice to reach their ears alone. "I was beginning to worry, but you both look well enough. Were the Nepenthes more difficult than expected?"

"Not really," Kirito said, doing an admirable job of masking his surprise at her appearance. "We just didn't kite them quite well enough toward the end, that's all."

"He means, he accidentally drew the stragglers right at us," Asuna said dryly, giving the youth a brief, mild glare. "Which we're going to _talk_ about… later." She nodded at the crashed ship. "What's the plan?"

_Accidentally? I wonder what he did…. Well. Regardless, they're performing admirably for those new to the battlefield._ Aloud, Kizmel said, "It seems we did indeed finish off their skilled fighters last night." Pointing toward the ship, she continued, "After the four I dealt with on the way here, and considering the condition of the wreck, I suspect we'll not face serious opposition even inside. Most likely, perhaps a dozen remain aboard a ship that size."

"A dozen." Kirito frowned for a moment, then nodded. "If we don't have to fight them all at once, we should be able to handle that. If I remember right, the core crystal should be toward the stern, close to the keel?"

Making a mental note to ask just what knowledge the Swordmasters had been given about the world to which they'd been called—and why Kirito seemed to know more than Asuna did—Kizmel nodded. "On a ship of this size, yes. Of course, that's also most likely where most of the survivors are, but between the three of us, that should not be a problem."

"Of course." Asuna still looked dubious—which Kizmel thought was fair enough, all things considered; she was surprised the two were fit to fight at all—but she made no protest. "So where do we go in? The deck?"

"We could. But why take the obvious route?" Kizmel allowed herself a small smile, and gestured toward the ship's splintered bow. "It would be a shame to waste the efforts _Moon__shadow_'s made, would it not?"

* * *

Fighting Forest Elf Sailors was much easier than the Knight Asuna had first encountered. With Kirito and Kizmel, fighting through to the deepest reaches of the airship proved a lot easier than she'd expected. Seeing what waiting for them there, she wasn't at all sure the quest would stay so easy.

It was a rectangular compartment, larger than anything Asuna had yet seen aboard either elven airship. Strange devices, most of them dark and battered, were set into the bulkheads, a few of them connected to glowing lines in the deck. Those, Asuna saw, led to a cylinder in the center of the compartment, made of some kind of transparent material that didn't quite seem to be glass.

Floating in the center of that cylinder was an emerald crystal, with spikes protruding in every direction. Those spikes, she noticed, pulsed in time with the lines in the deck. "So… that must be the core crystal."

"It is, Swordmaster." From the shadows behind one of the larger devices, a tall Forest Elf stepped into view. Much like _Moonshadow_'s Captain Emlas, he wore a uniform rather than proper armor, though he did have some kind of light breastplate over it. "You've not seen one before? Be glad your last new sight bears the power of Kales'Oh. It is an honor few humans have ever been granted." His lips curled in a bitter smile. "It's the reward you've earned, for killing so many of my men."

"It is hardly your right to complain," Kizmel told him, moving half a step ahead of Asuna. "You attacked us. You've none to blame but yourselves."

"Bah. This, after what the people of Lyusula have done? It was we who were provoked, girl." The Forest Elven Captain snorted, and smoothly drew a cutlass from his waist. "It matters not. You'll not have my ship's core crystal—nor will any of you leave here alive!"

"Scripted event, adds coming," Kirito whispered quickly in her ear. "Look out!"

He didn't have to tell her twice. Or even the first time, really. The Captain was already throwing himself across the room, cutlass blazing in a skill Asuna didn't yet recognize, to clash swords with Kizmel. At the same time, hatches to either side crashed open, letting in four Sailors.

Outnumbered, and no time to retreat. Kirito opened by firing his grapnel to tangle one Sailor's legs, tripping him into another. Asuna darted in the other direction, rapier already blazing into a Linear. The tip pierced deep into the first Sailor's chest, staggering him—but unlike Kirito's pair, the second was quick enough to jump to one side rather than be tangled.

The cutlass blow that came down on her shoulder, in the instant she was held by the Linear's backlash, prompted an instinctive flinch. VR or not, she still hadn't had a chance to get used to the lack of pain, and just anticipating it made her hesitate. That hesitation almost cost her badly, her first target recovering enough to slash at her side.

Somehow, she managed to twist aside and push between them. Then, whirling, she ducked the second Sailor's next blazing slash to stab the first in the right shoulder. That elf's sword, coming down toward her, was thrown wide by the blow, giving her time to ready another skill.

Asuna wasn't a gamer. That didn't mean she didn't understand the idea of focusing on one enemy at a time, in the hopes of cutting down the attacks coming back at her. That in mind, she slashed her Streak across that first Sailor's nose, and did her best to dodge the second rather than engage him directly.

Kirito, she noticed, was having a bit of an easier time of things. In a brief glimpse she got while sidestepping a cutlass slash aimed at taking off her hand, she saw he'd managed to drop one of his enemies to the deck again, his grapnel just then pulling back to his wrist, leaving him free to clash blades with the other. In that quick moment, he countered a Sword Skill with one of his own, the impact triggering a rebound that pushed them both back.

It was hard to tell, in the heat of the moment, but she was fairly sure the impact had done a tiny bit more damage to the elf's HP than to Kirito's.

"You've found skilled allies, I'll give you that," Asuna heard the Captain grind out. Risking a glance that way, in between shoving one Sailor's arm wide and stabbing the other in the stomach, she saw the Captain and Kizmel circling the core crystal, swords shining. "Even after the loss of the Knights yesterday, I did not expect you to so easily slaughter my men."

"Oh, I've confidence in my companions, to be sure," Kizmel retorted, stepping quickly around the cylinder to pursue the Captain. "Though sending sailors to do the job of knights and men-at-arms was your own mistake. Even sending monsters to do your bidding was a tactic only as good as their handlers."

"True enough. But!" The Captain suddenly lunged to meet her, cutlass arcing down toward Kizmel's sword arm in a blaze of red light. "My ship may be hampered by the Betrayer's strictures. You'll find me not so easily struck down, dog of Lyusula!"

Kizmel caught the blow on her shield and shoved back. "Boast as you will, 'Captain'," she said, her saber already lancing in. "You may not be bound as your men, but you're hardly a knight yourself!"

Asuna had the strangest feeling she was only getting about half the conversation. She didn't really have time to worry about it, though, as in her moment of distraction both her enemies had positioned themselves to attack again. One cutlass was coming for her shoulder—again—while the other was heading for her flank, and there was only time to even try to disrupt one.

She settled for an Oblique, stabbing one of the Sailors in the thigh. The blade that would've bitten into her ribs instead went on past, the Sailor collapsing to one knee, and her own motion carried her down below the other sword. The overhand blow still bit into her shoulder, but not hard or as deep.

Somewhere off on the other side of the compartment, there was a shattering sound. Emboldened, Asuna chose to ignore the still-standing Sailor, instead kicking out with one boot to strike the fallen one's uninjured leg. His hands went to the deck to catch himself, and in that moment she drove another Oblique into the back of his neck.

A breath, while he shattered and she recovered from the Oblique's post-motion. A breath that let a cutlass carve into her side, taking a good ten percent of her HP in one blow. Just a breath—and then Asuna was whirling, putting the momentum of that and a quick step into a Linear, blasting the Sailor right into the bulkhead.

Down to the one foe, she didn't let up. In the time it took the Forest Elf to hit the wall and bounce back, she'd recovered and set up for another Linear. Then another, with the same result. She was left wondering if that was normal, but this time didn't allow any distractions. This time, she only pressed the attack, and on one final rebound drove a simple thrust into the Sailor's throat.

The standard shattered-glass sound seemed oddly staccato that time, and it took Asuna a moment to realize it was because there'd been a second one behind her. Quickly turning, she found Kirito lowering his sword, and giving her a thumbs-up with his free hand. "Nice stun-lock!"

_Stun-lock? Argh, later!_

"So. All my men, dead." The Captain's words came out through gritted teeth, his sword grating against Kizmel's. "Perhaps—I underestimated you—after all. But in that case—I will not let you have your prize!"

He suddenly pulled back and spun, the abrupt lack of resistance making Kizmel stagger forward. His cutlass was already glowing, crimson edge crashing into the cylinder. It shrieked, cracked, shattered; the sword kept on going, blazing toward the core crystal—

Kirito's Vertical took his left arm off just below the shoulder, staggering him. Asuna's Linear drove into his right wrist, forcing him to drop the cutlass a few centimeters from the crystal. The gleam of a skill Asuna didn't yet know took Kizmel's saber into the Captain's spine.

With a choked gasp, the Captain slumped against the broken cylinder. As Kizmel's blade came back out, he slumped to the deck, and awkwardly turned to face them. His head came up, and he stared straight at the tip of that Dark Elf saber.

No fear in his eyes, Asuna saw. No regret. Even as the last traces of red drained from his lifebar, he only looked at Kizmel in pure defiance.

The Dark Elf stared back, pitiless. "So," she said evenly. "Bested by one Pagoda Knight, and two humans who'd scarcely touched a blade before. Tell me, 'Captain', would you rather say it was their strength, or your men's weakness? After all, your people and mine are bound by the same ropes."

There was a bitterness there, one so at odds with Kizmel's caring and friendly demeanor with them that Asuna wondered if there was something personal involved. Only with difficulty did she remember the elf girl was only an NPC following a script.

…_Which still doesn't really answer my question, does it? A good story has a reason for this kind of thing, right?_

"Boast as _you_ will, 'Knight'," the Captain said bitterly, eyes falling closed. "Your victory here means little. Lyusula's chosen to ally themselves with dwellers in the dark? Well… Kales'Oh has allies, too. In the end, neither of us may see which dark bargain prevails…."

He fell still, then. A moment later, he shattered, scattering into fading blue shards like his men.

Asuna stared at the spot where the Captain had been for a long, long moment. _So this… is a VRMMO? It… feels so real. _Too_ real…._

Shuddering, she looked up at Kirito. Seeing the strange look on his face, she forced her thoughts away from the Captain's last words, and said, "I thought you said the Captain would be harder?"

"He was," Kizmel said dryly, sheathing her saber. "Without your aid, I would never have prevailed here…. You might look to your own wounds, Asuna. You fought very well, and I am impressed, but I think you'd best not fight again in your condition."

Asuna blinked, glanced up at her HP, and blanched. She was still in the yellow, but only barely; another solid hit from one of the Sailors would've dropped her right into the red. _If there'd been more of them—or if the ones we fought on the way had waited to fight us in here instead—_

At least she had the satisfaction of seeing Kirito also scrambling to pull a potion from a belt pouch, face noticeably red.

Kizmel chuckled. "Don't be too ashamed. I admit, when Kayaba's spell took hold even my fellow Knights and I made grave missteps before we became used to the lack of pain. If you're willing, I can at least help you with that. In the meantime…."

She reached into the shattered cylinder, gripped the crystal still floating in the center, and pulled it free. As she did, the glowing lines on the deck dimmed, and the ambient light within the ship soon died away.

Lit only by the core crystal's inner glow, Kizmel gestured back the way they'd come. "Now that we have our prize, shall we return?" She smiled wryly. "Perhaps Captain Emlas' mood will be improved, with this in hand. …Perhaps."

* * *

When the three of them returned to _Moonshadow—_after fighting through several groups of respawned Little Nepenthes, to Asuna's annoyance—they found the Dark Elves had been busy in their absence. Several piles of deadwood lay next to the crashed ship's hull, and some of the crew were busily sawing individual pieces into shape.

Asuna wasn't sure which gave her a greater feeling of unreality: the unnaturally smooth way the NPCs went about their tasks, or the way generic sawing motions were turning chunks of wood into perfectly-shaped planks. Even more than the way injuries were represented by red particles and wireframes and the dead shattered into polygons, it clashed with the overall sense of reality _SAO_ had.

She only had a moment to think about that, though, before Captain Emlas came down the plank from _Moonshadow_'s deck. The wolf—Cavall, she recalled—followed close behind, sniffing at the air. "So, you've returned," he began. "Did you succeed, or did the Forest Elves send you back with your tails between your legs?"

There might've been a trace of exasperation on Kizmel's face, just for a moment. Then it was gone, replaced with cool professionalism. "There were a dozen or so sailors left to the Forest Elf ship, and they'd turned their core crystal to influencing the local monsters." Her lips quirked in a small smile. "With the aid of two Swordmasters, it was a simple enough task."

_Simple, she says. Well, it was definitely easier than I thought it'd be, at least._ At the elven knight's nod, Asuna brought up her menu, tapped through to the inventory, and materialized the emerald crystal. "One core crystal," she said coolly, taking some satisfaction in the way Emlas' eyes widened. "As requested."

With obvious care, Emlas took the crystal from her hands. "Fully intact," he murmured. "A minor miracle… and one that may yet save us all." The captain looked up from the crystal and gave the two players each a nod, looking much less dismissive than he had before. "It seems we're in your debt, Swordmasters. As agreed, you've sanctuary with _Moonshadow,_ at least until we're able to return to our own territory."

There was a chime in her ear, and a quick flash; realizing it was the quest completion—and, she thought, her first level-up—Asuna felt tension she hadn't noticed was there flow out of her shoulders. "Thank you, Captain," she said sincerely. "…Is there anything else we can help with?"

"Ha!" There might almost have been a ghost of a smile on Emlas' face. Just for a second, before his gruff frown returned, and he shook his head. "Repairing _Moonshadow_ is elven work, Dame Asuna, and replacing a core crystal without killing the ship is delicate work indeed. Though if you are determined to make yourself useful, I suppose we could stand having another sword to keep off the local monsters."

She blinked at that, wondering what two players could contribute on top of the dozen or so Dark Elves clustered around the ship. Then, looking closer, she realized most—if not all—of them were lacking armor, with only a couple of them even armed. The night before, Emlas had stated confidently that his crew could easily take two Swordmasters, but after those two had just helped fight through a ship's worth of Forest Elf sailors….

Kizmel's slow nod seemed to confirm her thoughts. "I would certainly welcome the help," she said. "Even with Cavall's aid, I can only fight what I can see, and nothing more than what comes within reach of my sword." The wolf gave a low yip at that, though Asuna couldn't guess if he was agreeing or not.

"Then I'm up for it." She turned to her partner, whom she now realized had been oddly silent since their return. "Shall we, Kirito-kun?"

"…Actually," he said, shaking his head, "if you don't mind, there's something I need to take care of first. I should be back by sundown."

Asuna frowned. "What? What could you possibly need to do right now? We got the crystal." _If there's something _else_ he hasn't told me, I swear, I'm going to tie him up with his grapnel and sit on him…._

Kirito raised his hands defensively. "No, really, it's not that big a deal. It's just, you remember that quest item I got from the Little Nepenthes?" Clearly seeing the way her eyebrows twitched at that, he hurried on, "I just want to go and turn in the quest. Don't worry, you'll get your share of EXP just from being in my party—and I promise, as soon as I can I'll find you a quest with an equivalent equipment reward!"

…_That does _not_ reassure me._ "And there's a reason you want to go alone?"

"It's more efficient if you stay here and help guard the ship," he said. "This way we'll both be getting EXP, if only from the quest rewards. Besides, it'll be faster for me to get there and back by myself. Easier to get around any mobs on the way, if nothing else."

She still wasn't convinced. At all. And if she was any judge, Kizmel wasn't either—and if the NPC could tell something was up, Asuna was sure it wasn't her imagination. Even so, she couldn't entirely argue with his logic, and he _was_ the expert. _So far._

"…Fine. Just make sure you really don't stay out too late. If I have to go looking for you, you _won't_ like it!"

* * *

Kirito felt bad for ditching Asuna, even for just a couple of hours. Really, he did. But he'd told her the truth about it being more efficient, this once, to do two quests at once. And he was kind of hoping to remember some quest or other that might give out a good rapier before she saw what he was getting from this quest.

What was most on his mind as he dashed through the forest toward Horunka Village, though, was the nature of the particular quest. The details of it, and Asuna's breakdown the previous night when Kizmel had mentioned being cut off from her sister.

He didn't know the details of her family situation, and he wasn't going to ask. He _was_ going to try to spare her from having it thrown in her face again, if he possibly could.

When Kirito reached Horunka, he slipped in through a back road, rather than the main street. Though he and Asuna had been the first players to leave Origia the previous night, he strongly suspected other beta testers had followed suit not too long after. Right then, he wasn't ready to confront any of them.

Alleys it was, taking him between rows of classic European-style houses. Keeping to the shadows—wishing idly as he did that he'd had the chance to pick up the Hiding skill, just to minimize chances of encounters—he quickly made his way toward the center of the village. That far in, he glimpsed a few other players; luckily for him, they seemed caught up in their own business.

Reaching one small house in particular, Kirito paused at its door. _I hope nobody else is doing this right now. Bumping into another player here, of all places, would be beyond awkward._ Steeling himself, he rapped sharply on the door.

"…Come in."

Opening it, he found himself in a small kitchen, where a tired-looking woman stood over a stove. She was stirring a pot, and a golden exclamation point hung over her head. She glanced at him, a look of mild curiosity barely easing the worried frown.

Kirito had never tried to complete this particular quest without technically starting it first, but he'd known other quests that could be completed at once. He just hoped he'd guessed right on the key phrases. "Excuse me," he said quietly. "I was passing through the village, and happened to hear your daughter was sick." Bringing up his menu, he produced the Little Nepenthe's Ovule he'd claimed in battle earlier. "I thought this might help…?"

The woman's eyes brightened, and she quickly took the proffered fruit. "Thank you, kind Swordmaster," she said, turning to add it the pot. "This was just what I needed, but I knew I couldn't go looking for it myself…."

He watched, then, as the quest continued on. This one, at least, played out as he remembered from the beta. The young mother poured the contents of the pot into a bowl, and carefully carried it into another room. She gave it to the sickly girl lying in the bed, just as in the beta test. There was no dramatic change, when the girl drank the soup; maybe just a little color returning to her cheeks. But it was enough for the quest to register as completed in his log, and he let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Then the girl turned him, looked him right in the eye, and smiled. "Thank you… Onii-chan."

If that dam hadn't already broken the previous night, Kirito would've lost it just then. It was too much like Suguha, the last time he'd nursed her through a bad cold. Even after the previous night's breakdown, he still felt himself begin to choke up, and he could only give a silent bow.

He was deeply relieved when the mother led him back into the kitchen. "I can't thank you enough for your help, Swordmaster," she said, crossing to a large chest against the room's southern wall. "This is just a small token, but I think it will serve you more than my family." Opening the chest, she took out a long sword, sheathed in a red scabbard, and handed it to him.

Kirito took it gratefully. Normally the simple sword he'd bought in Origia would've at least lasted him a few days, but after fighting so many Little Nepenthes and the totally unexpected Forest Elves, it was already nicked, battered, and even a bit melted. The Anneal Blade was a fine replacement, which he thought ought to last him the rest of the first island.

After murmuring his thanks, he turned to go—only to pause, hearing the mother speak again. "I know you, don't I? You're that boy from Rulid Village."

Heart suddenly hammering in his ears, a chill running down his veins, Kirito turned to face the woman again. "…I'm sorry…?"

She peered closely at his face, then nodded firmly. "Yes, I remember. It's been years, but I can still see the boy from back then in you." She smiled. "I always thought you'd grow up to be a fine swordsman one day. I'm glad to see I was right. I knew the stories couldn't be true…. Thank you, Kirito. And good luck."

Blinking rapidly, Kirito stammered out an incoherent acknowledgment—and fled, running out into the reddening light.

* * *

November 9th, 2032

* * *

It took another two days after taking the Forest Elf core crystal for _Moonshadow_'s repairs to be completed. During that time, Asuna found herself and Kirito pressed into scavenging deadwood to supplement what the crew had already gathered, as well as helping Kizmel fend off occasional monster attacks. In between, Kirito took her through some simple nearby quests, to gain experience and a few useful quest rewards.

Kizmel, to Kirito's evident confusion, accompanied them for most of those. The NPC waved it off as merely the honorable thing to do, but it was clear to Asuna that he found it very strange. For her part, though, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth; not when she was still so new to VR.

Besides which, the elf girl's presence helped keep Asuna's mind off the truth of their situation. So far, it still didn't quite feel real, and she was dreading the moment it all sank in.

Finally, after those two days, _Moonshadow_ was hale and whole again. That afternoon, Captain Emlas gruffly invited the two Swordmasters to the ship's bridge. "Without the two of you, my ship would've died," he said, when Kizmel led them in. "You've the right to see her sail again."

"Thank you, Captain," Asuna said, giving a shallow bow. "We appreciate it." Glancing quickly to her left, she discretely elbowed Kirito. "Don't we?"

He jumped. "Eh? Oh, yeah! Of course we do, Captain. You've helped us out a lot."

There might've been just a flicker of amusement in Emlas' eye. "Have we, now? Well. Stay out of the way, and in a few moments you'll see the real fruit of your labors."

If there was one benefit to Asuna's upbringing, it was knowing how to stay out of the way. With a chuckling Kizmel, she pulled Kirito off to one side, and took a moment to take in the bridge. Set at the top of _Moonshadow_'s sterncastle, it was furnished of the same dark oak as the rest of the ship, with windows that didn't quite look like glass ringing it. Consoles of a gleaming metal she was pretty sure wasn't steel were placed at intervals, each of them occupied by one of the ship's—fairly generic-looking, if she was honest—sailors.

At the center was what she presumed was the captain's chair. Hard to say for sure just then, though, as Emlas was standing at the wheel a meter or so ahead of it, gently turning it one way and then the other. There was a small smile on the gruff captain's face now, giving him a gentler cast than Asuna had so far seen from him.

"All right, men," Emlas said then. "Let's be about it." He touched the panel standing beside the wheel, and a tone like wind chimes sounded. "Engine room. Is the crystal stable?"

"_Aye, Captain,"_ came a voice from, as far as Asuna could tell, nowhere. _"__Lift__ field ready at your order. Just… please be careful, Sir. Core crystals are always touchy, settling in with new ships."_

The captain grunted. "As I know all too well… Very well, Engineer. Under the circumstances, I'd rather keep things slow and gentle anyway. I'd not alarm anyone who might be watching." He tapped the panel again, and nodded to one of the elves standing at the front of the bridge. "Power to the lift field. Get us off the ground, nice and easy."

"Power to the lift field, aye. Lifting."

As _Moonshadow_ began to thrum around them, Asuna leaned in close to Kirito. "Do you find it as weird as I do," she whispered, "hearing elves talk like that?"

"Kinda, yeah," he murmured back. "I didn't deal much with their ships back in the beta—not intact ones, anyway… and don't look at me like that. It's a war, remember?" He shrugged, too casually. "And it's not like I spent that much of my time on this one quest, anyway."

"Hm…." She narrowed her eyes at him, and glanced suspiciously at the sword hilt over his right shoulder. He didn't meet her gaze, instead turning to watch the ship's liftoff preparations. Innocently, as if there was nothing strange at all.

Asuna didn't believe his act for a moment. Though he'd since taken her through a quest to get her a set of light but sturdy armor, as compensation for having snuck off to get himself a new sword, she still hadn't forgotten Kirito's behavior that night. She hadn't even really cared about the sword, so much as how quiet and unsettled he'd been.

Kirito claimed the Anneal Blade quest had gone as normal, and that if he seemed at all off it was just because of the whole "trapped in a death game" mess. He might even have been telling the truth; it wasn't like she'd known him for more than three days. But she was sure _something_ had happened, when he'd been out of her sight. While she might not have known him, personally, she knew masks all too well.

"Truthfully," Kizmel said softly, interrupting Asuna's scrutiny, "I've often thought airship crews are almost as odd as wolf handlers." She smiled wryly, when Asuna turned to look. "The ways of a knight have changed little in a thousand generations, Asuna. The traditions of sailors seem to change too fast to keep up, by the standards of my people."

_Moonshadow_'s thrumming increased as the elf girl spoke, and the ship shivered. There was a pause, like the ship herself taking a breath—and with a feeling like pulling free from mud, she moved, the view beyond the bridge windows lifting from the downward slant the crash had left the ship in.

"Lift field holding, Captain."

"Very good. When we're somewhere less conspicuous, we can repair the balancers…. Pull in the landing skids."

"Pulling in landing skids, Captain."

"You know," Kizmel mused, as _Moonshadow_ began to rise, "I've been wondering. Though the two of you answered my appeal to the Last Alliance quickly enough, plainly you did not expect to find me there at all." She quirked one curious eyebrow. "If you'd not heard of my mission, may I ask why you were there at all?"

Asuna exchanged a quick look with Kirito. In theory, the answer to that should've been simply that they were Swordmasters, and running around slaying monsters was just what they did. By rights, even by Asuna's vague knowledge of AI, that should've been the only answer Kizmel could understand at all.

But in three days, the elf girl had never fallen back on the generic, obviously-scripted dialogue of ordinary NPCs. Maybe it was just that she'd been given a wider script than usual. Maybe it was just that Kirito knew exactly what to say. Yet Asuna thought there was _something_ different—and somehow, she didn't want to lie to the person who'd given them sanctuary, that first, terrible night.

"We were looking for quests," Kirito said finally, seeming to pick up on Asuna's unspoken sentiment. "We were dropped into this without knowing what was really going on, so the first thing we wanted to do was get stronger. Strong enough to… to survive."

Asuna shivered. So far, even with the quest to take the core crystal, she hadn't really felt like she'd faced death in this world. The idea still gave her the chills when she did think about it. _I wonder if I'd feel better getting used to it… or worse._

"I see," Kizmel said, nodding slowly. "My people would never send scarcely-trained warriors out by themselves, but I suppose you've little choice. …And what do you plan to do, when you've the strength to face this world's dangers?"

Beyond the windows, the sun was beginning to set, golden light casting strange patterns through those not-glass panes. The ship had almost reached the height of the treetops, ascending slowly but steadily.

"We're going to fight," Asuna said, fingers tracing the hilt of her rapier. "It's the only way we're ever going to go home." She swallowed, thinking back on the speech they'd heard, three days and a lifetime ago. The speech, and what she'd left behind.

_There's so much I wanted to get away from. Things that I may have already lost. But I miss Nii-san, and Father. …And Mother, even._

_But I can't get back, the way I am now. Mother's way won't help me here. I can't just find a secure place, and let someone else do the work. I can't, and I don't want to._

"Kayaba said we'd have to take Bifrost from the Administrator," she said, past a lump in her throat. "And that's what I'm going to do." She glanced at her partner. "What _we're_ going to do." _I don't know you yet. But I think… I think I won't mind this, for as long as it lasts._

Kizmel smiled. "It seems we've a mutual enemy, then." She gave them a speculative look. "Hm… you say you need to be stronger. Did you have any plans in mind?"

Asuna looked to Kirito. It was his knowledge she'd been relying on, so far. He'd spoken of quests around Horunka Village, but they'd mostly completed those over the last couple of days. When they'd discussed things that morning, he'd admitted he'd need a little time to figure out what to try next. He was a solo, after all, and in the beta had only worked with parties briefly and infrequently.

"…We're still working on that," he admitted. "I, um, had some advance knowledge of Aincrad, but some of it wasn't quite right, and…." He shrugged uncomfortably. "I was thinking of trying to find an information broker I know. I don't know for sure if she's even here, though."

_She?_ Asuna had to resist the urge to demand further details then and there. She was dying to know what kind of girl Kirito might've been acquainted with—just to get another measure of his character, of course.

"I see," Kizmel said thoughtfully. "Well, I'd defer to your judgment about your own people, of course. That being said—"

"That's high enough," Captain Emlas said, as _Moonshadow_ cleared the trees. "Our guests aside, who knows how the Swordmasters are taking things right now. We will keep low, for now…. Give me power to the engines. Half thrust."

"Power to engines, half thrust…."

With another shiver, _Moonshadow _began to move forward, slowly at first but soon gaining speed. Emlas spun the wheel, the ship soared ahead—and Asuna had her first real look at Aincrad's first island, Einsla, from above.

Sweeping forests. Rolling hills, and green plains. A lake, glittering under the light of the setting sun. Off to starboard, as _Moonshadow_ swung around, the mountains of Einsla's northern edge reached for the sky. Nestled among them, Origia's towers gleamed.

Above and around it all, the golden honeycomb of the Skywall shimmered. To Asuna's eyes, it was both a beautiful sight, and a challenge. That wall was the barrier she needed to overcome, if she was ever going to see her family again—just as inside herself, she needed to overcome herself, to be someone who could defeat that wall.

"You've been dependable allies to my people so far," Kizmel said in her ear. Both players turned to look at her again, to find the elf girl smiling. "My own people must see the Skywall brought low, as well, and right now, _Moonshadow_ is sorely pressed for swords. Would the two of you care to accompany us a little longer?"

This time, as _Moonshadow_ swept into Aincrad's sky, Asuna had little trouble reading Kirito at all. There was relief in those dark eyes—relief, and some of the longing she was feeling herself, she thought. "That sounds like a plan," he said, and extended one fist. "If it's okay with you, anyway."

"I'd like that, Kizmel," Asuna said sincerely, remembering the Dark Elf knight's sisterly warmth in one terrible night. She reached out her own fist to meet Kirito's, not quite getting the gesture but feeling it was somehow just right. "I'd like that a lot, actually."

Kizmel looked down at their hands, brow furrowing. Then, with another small smile, her knuckles came out to join theirs. "Then we shall be comrades. For as long as our paths are crossed."

In the fading orange light of a strange sun, with a youth she'd known three days and an AI who seemed more alive than many people she'd known in her normal life, for the first time since Kayaba Akihiko's horrible speech, Asuna felt something resembling hope.

_It's begun. I don't know where I'm going… but with Kirito-kun, and Kizmel, I'll find out. …I _want_ to find out…._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

* * *

Okay. Let me first say, right out of the gate, I think I'm having a bit of a pacing problem here, and for that I very much apologize. This is pretty much what I wanted this chapter to cover, but it shouldn't have taken nineteen thousand words to do it (and that's after cutting out a semi-expendable thousand words). I didn't use to have quite this problem, and I'm not sure why I am now, so suggestions as to where I'm overdoing things would be welcomed. I do think part of my problem was simply that I'm still having to exposit on the setting and introduce the characters to each other, so hopefully that'll ease off soon, but still.

Anyway. Not much to say about the chapter otherwise, except that I hope the hints of deeper mysteries somewhat make up for the relative lack of progression. Next chapter will delve back into the wider situation, what with the lead-up to the fic's equivalent of the First Floor boss fight. And yes, that does mean Argo will be appearing.

One minor note that I meant to mention last time: for those who haven't read _Monochrome Duet,_ "Swordmaster" is a term I originally used in that fic as a handy label for NPCs to use for players, to distinguish them from human "natives" of Aincrad (inspired by _Log Horizon_'s use of "Adventurer", actually). With this fic, I saw no reason to mess with a system that worked.

Can't promise Chapter 3 will be prompt, unfortunately; I really do need to get back to _Duet_ (really trying to get that fic out of the Aincrad arc, there just isn't much more that arc can contribute to _Duet_'s core plot). But I did want to get this chapter out to at least make it clear I do intend to go places with _Rebellion,_ and this isn't just a flash in the pan.

I mean, really. Twenty-eight reviews, over ninety Favs, and over one hundred Follows, just for the first chapter, when I thought it was a really rough start? No way I was going to ignore that kind of response. I'm impressed, truly.

So. Next chapter will—hopefully—be a bit more exciting than this when it does arrive. For now—necessary team- and world-building, or terrible pacing? You decide. Either way, Merry Christmas, comrades. _-Solid_


	3. Chapter III: The Symbol of Our Victory

**Chapter III: "The Symbol of Our Victory"**

* * *

November 20th, 2032

* * *

A quiet medley of woodwind instruments played inside Asuna's head, abruptly rousing her from the visions her sleeping brain had inflicted on her. So different from any alarm she'd had in the normal world, it pulled her back to her current world quite easily.

For a few long, quiet moments, she just let herself lie there, taking in the soft sheets and narrow mattress. Breathing in the scent of oak, listening to the last traces of her alarm, she waited for her heart to slow down. Another dream of her mother, that had been, Yuuki Kyouko harshly scolding her for falling behind in her studies for the sake of a mere game.

It said something, Asuna thought, that her new reality was less frightening than some of her nightmares. Two weeks to the day since Kayaba Akihiko had trapped her and twenty thousand others under the threat of death, and that was still comforting compared to the thought of what her mother would say when it was all over.

_But she's not here,_ she reminded herself, letting her eyes open at last. _She isn't. Even if what I do have to put up with is even weirder._

Her first sight was the underside of the bunk above her. As she turned her head to the right, she saw a dusky hand casually hanging from above—and then, across the cabin's too-narrow aisle, the much paler youth who occupied the opposite bunk. Already awake, unsurprisingly, and from the look of it skimming through his menu. When he'd woken up—or for that matter gone to sleep—Asuna wasn't sure. Though she was sure he wasn't sleeping as much as she was.

She was still getting used to that. To having a guy sleeping in the same room as her. But over the course of two weeks in _Moonshadow_'s cramped cabin, she'd at least come to the conclusion Kirito wasn't a perverted creep. An awkward, insufferable know-it-all, maybe, but safe to be around.

_A lot safer than the alternative, that's for sure._ Asuna shivered, remembering all too vividly some of her nightmares. There were reasons she was so quick in her judgment of Kirito's character. She knew creeps.

There was barely a whisper of sound as she sat up, just her sheets sliding down. It was still enough for Kirito to glance up from his menu and offer a tentative smile, and a second later a face joined the hand hanging from the upper bunk. "Maer arduil, Asuna," the Dark Elf Kizmel said, giving her an upside-smile. "I hope you slept… well enough, at least?"

"Maer arduil, Kizmel," Asuna said, mustering up a smile of her own. "I'm… getting there, anyway." She was, too. She wasn't spending _all_ night in the grip of terror anymore. Which was also kind of frightening, but probably better for her chances of survival.

The greeting helped, in its own way. Kirito had picked it up the first morning, and his pronunciation was better than hers—weird, given his English needed a lot of work—but Asuna had latched onto the Sindarin "good morning" quickly herself. It was one of the little details that helped ground her in Aincrad, making it easier to start each new day.

"Anyway," she said then, shaking off the fading nightmares. "What's on the agenda today? More quests?" Since getting the core crystal, and especially since _Moonshadow_'s repairs had been completed, she and Kirito had been working through the quests closest to the ship's former crash site. They'd been taking it slowly, between Asuna's own neophyte status and having to work around Captain Emlas' patrols, but progress had been steady.

By now, Asuna thought she was really starting to get the hang of things, to the extent that the quests around Horunka Village were honestly feeling too easy. Not that she really disagreed with Kirito's plan to work through all of them anyway, nor was she going to object to Kizmel helping them out.

"We need to talk about that, actually," Kirito said, swiping his menu closed. "We finished the last Horunka quest last night, so we're going to need to go a bit farther afield soon…. But first, Kizmel and I raided the galley earlier."

Asuna made a face at that. It wasn't the continued wariness of _Moonshadow_'s crew that bothered her—most of them were easier to see as NPCs than Kizmel, they had darn good reason to be suspicious, and they really had been easing up lately anyway. No, that wasn't her problem at all—and as Kizmel's wry grimace showed, it wasn't a human problem at all.

Their Royal Guard companion swung down nimbly to the deck then—Kirito quickly glancing away as her thin nightgown rode up—and held up a plate for Asuna. Two bars that resembled thick granola bars, and a round lump. "I'd like to claim the ship's cook was one of the casualties of the crash," Kizmel said, "but truthfully it would take a much better chef than most ships ever have to make something tasteful of airship rations."

Gazing mournfully at the two sticks of alleged bread and serving of what might have once been meat before someone had salted and cooked it into a form of rock, Asuna reflected there was one thing she did miss about reality. The day Kayaba locked them all in, she'd had no idea what would soon be inflicted upon her poor taste buds.

With only a sigh, though, she dug in. According to Kirito, avatars hadn't had to worry about hunger in the beta—though apparently the sensation had still gotten through—but that was yet another of Kayaba's little changes to the release version. And if there was one thing Asuna refused to do, it was die of something as stupidly simple as starvation.

_At least teeth are considered Immortal Objects. My real ones would break on this… stuff._

Stomach appeased, however poorly, the three of them turned to preparing for the day. Kizmel had it easiest, simply tapping a spot on her shoulder to trade her nightgown for tights and tunic in a flash of blue light. Kirito, whom as far as Asuna could tell just slept in the under layer of his adventuring gear, only had to bring up his menu and call up a pair of pants and a gray leather jacket.

Asuna didn't even have to give him a pointed look for him to roll to face the bulkhead after that. They'd established boundaries the second morning they'd been aboard; she had to give him credit for being a complete gentleman from the moment she'd first brought it up. She was uncomfortable enough as it was, wearing the not-overly-modest Dark Elf nightgown Kizmel had lent her. Letting a guy watch the _very_ immodest transition from that to her own day wear just wasn't happening.

Kizmel watched the process with clear amusement. "Had I needed further proof of your story, this would certainly have convinced me," she said, shaking her head with a chuckle. "Clearly the two of you have never lived in barracks conditions before."

"Even in the military, this wouldn't be normal for us," Asuna muttered, blushing. "Humans don't usually… oh, never mind." Two weeks she'd known the elven knight, and she still wasn't sure how much was the limitations of an NPC, and how much was the culture Kayaba had put together for the Dark Elves. She _knew_ Kizmel wasn't above trolling. "Anyway! What _are_ we doing today?"

Kirito rolled upright, letting his legs dangle from the bunk. "Well," he said, bringing up his map, "like I said, we've pretty much run out of Horunka quests. I mean, there's a couple of repeatable ones, but we've just about hit the point of diminishing returns on those…."

Asuna nodded. Newbie she might have been, she'd at least gotten a handle on how experience gains worked. Though she couldn't help but wonder how Kizmel took it all. She and Kirito had made an effort at first not to talk about things like that in her hearing for the first few days, but it just hadn't been practical to keep it up for long.

So far, Kizmel seemed to just write it off as Swordmaster weirdness. Asuna only hoped it stayed that way, and they didn't confuse her program somehow. NPC or not, she _liked_ the knight.

"So where to, then?" she asked, pushing her worries away for now. "That other village—Rulid, wasn't it? Or do we take a chance and head back to Origia for now?"

"Rulid wouldn't do us any good now," Kirito answered, quickly shaking his head. "And Captain Emlas still doesn't want to get too close to a big city like that, so we'd have to cross about half Einsla on foot." He frowned, tracing the map with one finger. "…We might have to, though. At least to find out what the situation is. It's been two weeks, we can't just avoid other Swordmasters forever."

Too true. If only for Kizmel's sake, and _Moon__shadow_'s, they'd kept their distance from the few other players who'd trickled into the Horunka area. Unfortunately, that meant they still didn't know how the playerbase as a whole was doing, half a month after Kayaba's "tutorial".

_And it's not like we can break through the Skywall all by ourselves, let alone reach Centoria…._

Kizmel cleared her throat. "Actually," she said, "I spoke with Captain Emlas before the two of you woke this morning. It seems he has a proposal. According to the lookouts, there's been a good deal more movement by Swordmasters outside Origia since last night."

* * *

_This seems to be a time for impulsive decisions on my part,_ Kizmel thought, as she and her Swordmaster companions walked along the road to the human town of Tolbana. _Heh. And I thought Tilnel was the reckless sister. I only hope I've not made a grave error._

Captain Emlas had been forced to concede the Swordmasters might well have been as innocent as Kirito and Asuna claimed, after two weeks of them largely hiding away in Origia. As he'd put it, such was not the behavior one would've expected of warriors knowingly summoned for a purpose. Kizmel was sure the gruff captain was not completely convinced, but it was still a step in what she personally believed was the right direction.

Swordmasters had, however, begun to venture out from Origia, and with so many of those bold ones making for Tolbana, Emlas wanted confirmation of the human champions' intentions. Preferably without involving his ship.

Between exhausting the "quests" in the Horunka region and having their own reasons to gauge their fellows' intentions, Kirito and Asuna had volunteered for the task readily enough. Sooner or later, they would have had no choice regardless; _Moonshadow_ was a sanctuary for them, yet in the long run that mattered little if the Skywall was not brought down.

Kizmel wasn't sure if it had been a whim or some deep-seated feeling even she didn't yet understand that prompted her to volunteer to join them. She was certain, though, that she'd promised to fight with them as long as their paths were crossed, and she intended to keep that promise. The smiles she'd gotten in return—bright from Asuna, hesitant but warm from Kirito—had only reminded her why she'd made that promise to begin with.

_The question is, will I regret this?_ With the hood up, the charms of her Mistmoon Cloak both hid her betraying ears and masked her "cursor"—that strange, ethereal symbol that distinguished those in the world between worlds—with the same color as an ally's, so long as she remained in the same "party". It was unlikely any Swordmaster would notice anything amiss. _I must hope magic may also fool magic, __however, or this __could__ prove an unpleasant mission indeed._

"How well do you remember Tolbana, Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked, as the road beneath their feet turned from bare earth to stone pavement. "We're almost as far south as you can get on Einsla, so this must be close to the Skywall Tower, right?"

"Just about the closest town," Kirito said, nodding. "Technically there's another village even closer to the catacombs leading to the Tower, but this one's better for staging a raid. There'll be blacksmiths and better shops here, not to mention more places to stay."

"Then the Swordmasters may finally be making a push for the Tower," Kizmel mused. They were rounding a bend in the road, and suddenly the town was in sight. "That's welcome news."

"Hopefully, yeah. Though we shouldn't get out hopes up just yet. The Captain said his lookouts confirmed around a hundred Swordmasters around here, and that's barely enough for a good clearing effort…."

Asuna's hood shifted, the fencer probably nodding beneath it. "I suppose you're right…. Well, it looks like we're about to see for ourselves."

They had reached Tolbana's gates, guarded on either side by a local human guardsman. Neither of them paid any heed to the three travelers, to Kizmel's relief—but the real test came moments later. As the three of them approached the gates themselves, she could feel a buzz, unlike anything she'd quite felt before.

Though neither Swordmaster seemed to notice, to her the sensation of magic was unmistakable. She'd grown up in a world where few strong magicks had been seen since generations before her birth. Approaching the "Safe Haven" barriers that protected human settlements from monsters and other interlopers was, to her, akin to walking into bright sunlight after years in near-total darkness.

Kizmel gritted her teeth, hoping her companions didn't notice anything. She had no wish to distress them over what was—hopefully—nothing. _I will adjust soon enough—so long as I can pass through at all._

Another step, the feeling was pressing against her skin—and then she was through, the barrier accepting either the deception of her cloak or her mystical alliance with two Swordmasters. The buzz eased to a background hum, and she was free.

To a Swordmaster, Kizmel suspected Tolbana was unremarkable. She'd seen human cities from a distance, in her time as a knight; on Einsla alone, Origia's towers dwarfed the town. In times past, she'd glimpsed the greater cities closer to the heart of the Aincrad Archipelago—and who knew how great the enclaves of the Swordmasters' homeland might be.

Compared to those, Tolbana was surely quaint. Yet to her, brought up in the great underground forests of Lyusula, stepping through the gates of an open-air town was a new and fresh experience. Before coming to this waking dream, she'd not had cause to venture within a human settlement. This was her first chance to mingle among that people.

Even had there not been cursors distinguishing friend from foe, local from summoned Swordmaster, it would still have been easy enough for Kizmel to tell resident from Swordmaster. If nothing else, there were far more of the former, milling through the streets on their own business, with the dull air of routine. Leaving aside the more drab wardrobe of the average local, they had little of the vibrancy she'd come to expect from Swordmasters.

_Admittedly, I've known only two so far, yet I cannot imagine any would venture out in Kayaba's trap without a burning will. Not this soon, a__t__ any rate._

"Looks like Captain Emlas was right," Kirito mused, a few streets into Tolbana. "Swordmasters must've only just come here in the last day or so." He was looking around with as much interest as Kizmel, though she suspected for a different reason. "It looks like just about everybody who made it is still working out what's here, and what's different from the beta test."

While Kizmel still wasn't entirely clear on what the "beta test" even was, she grasped his point well enough. The closer they got to the center of Tolbana, the more Swordmasters they saw—enough that she was fairly sure most of those who'd ventured out of Origia were in town, rather than adventuring outside it.

"It makes sense," Asuna said quietly. Like Kizmel, she wore her hood up. The knight wasn't really surprised, having gotten the impression over the past two weeks that her new comrades were outsiders of a sort even among their own people. "With the situation as it is, everyone needs to know exactly where they stand. …I'm more surprised players have come this far this soon at all."

"Something had to give," Kirito said, with a too-casual shrug. "Besides, there's twenty thousand Swordmasters. There's bound to be people crazy enough to be having fun here."

"Mad, or bold?" Kizmel put in, raising an eyebrow in his direction. "After all, the two of _you_ ventured out at once."

"Mad," Kirito said at once, turning to give her a wry smile. "And I hate crowds. Risking death from monsters wasn't the scarier option for me."

"For once, I have to agree with you," Asuna said. It was hard to tell with her own hood, but Kizmel thought the fencer was smirking.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised you don't like crowds, either—hey, wait!" Kirito interrupted himself, looking suddenly affronted. "Just which part were you really agreeing with?!"

"Take a guess, Kirito-kun. Even you should be able to figure that one out."

Kizmel couldn't help but chuckle, hiding her smile with her hand. It was good to see the two of them in high spirits, rather than the melancholy into which they both tended to slip when allowed time to think. _Not that I can blame either of them, all things considered. I may be as trapped as they, but at least I've the training of a knight._

Though in this case, she admitted to herself that her knowledge was somewhat lacking. Glancing around the ordinary humans, and small clusters of Swordmasters exploring Tolbana's streets, she said, "Kirito. You know both your people and the area best. Where should we begin our scouting?"

They were just entering what seemed to be Tolbana's central square. Kirito paused there, giving the vendors and buildings a slow, careful look. "To be honest, I'm not the best at talking to people," he said. "There is someone I can look up, though… but first, I think we should look into food, and a place to stay."

"Food?" Asuna grimaced. "I hate to say it, but we've got plenty of rations from _Moonshadow—_and from what I saw back in Origia on launch day, we're not going to find much better here."

"Not in the shops, no. But if things haven't changed too much from the beta…." He closed his eyes in obvious thought. "There's a quest here, **[The Heifer Strikes Back]**, that rewards a cream that can turn basic bread into a real treat."

"Oh?" Kizmel's eyes narrowed with interest. She hadn't had a meal she could call enjoyable since before leaving Sandoria, weeks earlier. "By all means, let us begin with that. I expect we'll all focus on our task much better with sated stomachs."

"…Well, I can't say I disagree." Though Asuna tried to hide it, it was obvious she was excited by the prospect herself. "What about an inn? I'm guessing you know a good place."

"You could say that." Glancing quickly around the square, Kirito's gaze settled on one particular street, and he set off again. "This way for the cow quest…. There's four different inns in Tolbana, but they're all pretty basic. I just happen to know of a farmhouse on the southern end of town, where you can rent the entire second floor. I doubt anybody will have noticed it yet, you really have to know to look for it."

An entire floor to themselves, away from the crowds? Kizmel liked the idea already. As intriguing as she found the human town, she was hardly comfortable there so soon. _Nor am I going to complain at having a little room to stretch,_ she thought, feeling a bit more of a spring in her step as she and Asuna followed Kirito away from Tolbana's center. _After weeks in a ship's cabin, that will be a relief indeed._

"The space is only one of the perks, though," Kirito continued, noticeably more animated himself. "The place has fresh milk, which goes great with the cream. There's even a nice, hot bath included in the—_urk!"_

Quick as her sword thrusts, Asuna's hand had snapped out and grabbed his collar, choking him mid-sentence. "What did you just say?" she demanded. "Fresh milk, and—?"

"A bath?" Kirito got out, gasping for breath. "It's not something you'll find in an inn until at least the Second Island, so it's definitely one of the farmhouse's selling points, but—_gah!_ Would you take it easy?!"

Having let go as suddenly as she'd taken hold of him, Asuna marched on ahead, fast walk quickly turning to a trot. "Well, what are we waiting for?!" she demanded, casting an impatient look over her shoulder. "I haven't had a bath in two weeks! Where is this farmhouse, anyway?"

Shaking her head, Kizmel took a moment to make sure Kirito was all right, and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Never underestimate a girl's appreciation for a good soak, Kirito," she advised him. "Asuna! The quest first! The bath will be the better if we've finished our business for the day, don't you think?"

"…Fine." Asuna's shoulders drooped for a moment, but her pace never slowed. After a few moments, once Kizmel and Kirito had caught up with her, she glanced over at the youth again, eyes narrow. "While we're at it—who's this contact of yours, anyway? And why haven't you looked them up already? The PM system works if you know the player name, right?"

"Well, yeah," Kirito said, tugging at his collar with a wince. "But… well, I kinda didn't want to have to explain to Argo the Rat where I was. Now that we're in a town, it should be safer… I think…."

* * *

In the end, they took on just about every quest from Tolbana that Kirito could remember off the top of his head. Asuna had to concede it was more efficient to do things that way, and as mind-numbing as the fetch and monster-hunting quests were, they did give a good payout of experience and Cor. As eager as she was to indulge herself, she couldn't just think short-term.

With several of the quests done, another character level under her belt, and a jar of the cream Kirito promised was so good in her inventory, the sky was turning orange. Together with Kizmel, Asuna followed her partner to a farmhouse a bit outside Tolbana's streets, just barely inside the town's safe zone. Absolutely nothing remarkable about it, to her eye; it probably wouldn't have looked out of place in Europe any time in the last three or four hundred years.

Which was probably why her world seemed to tilt, as they approached the two-story, wooden building. She'd spent the first two weeks since Kayaba's horrifying announcement aboard a Dark Elf airship, about as far from "normal" as anything in her life had ever been. It had, in a way, kept the whole situation from feeling real to her.

Spending the night in a perfectly normal human house… suddenly she felt like she wasn't ready for that.

Asuna let Kirito do the talking, when they walked into the house's kitchen. He knew how to talk to the farm wife NPC, and as long as they were in the same party, rental privileges would apply to all of them anyway. She was too busy trying to squash the panic rising for the first time in two weeks.

"What's wrong, Asuna?" Kizmel asked, voice barely a whisper as she leaned in close. "I would think this place would be more comfortable for you than _Moonshadow,_ it being of your own people. Or," the elf girl added thoughtfully, "is it different from what you're accustomed to? I suppose humans of your world might have a culture as different from this as from mine."

"Actually, it's not very different at all," Asuna said, gratefully latching on to the distraction of explaining for the elf. "Which is the problem, honestly. It's… _too_ familiar. Too real."

"…Ah." Following Kirito up the stairs to the floor that would be their home for a little while, Kizmel gave a thoughtful nod. "I'd not thought of that. This is a mirage of the world I know, and I was already a swordswoman when this began. I can scarcely imagine how disorienting it must be, finding the familiar among the strange."

Yeah. That was a good way of putting it. Though Asuna thought there was more to it than that, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

At the door at the top of the stairs, Kirito turned the knob and pushed it open, leading the way in. _The way locks rely on permissions instead of keys just makes the whole thing weirder. It's like this is real, except when it isn't._ She shivered. _…I wonder how many people have gotten—hurt—because of that._

"Well, here we are," Kirito said, when they were in. "It might be a bit cramped with three of us, but it's still better than an airship cabin, right?"

"…Mostly, yeah." There were windows on three walls, letting in the evening sunlight. The floor was mostly bare wood, with a couple of throw rugs by the door on the fourth wall and the beds. A couch sat beneath one window, and a simple desk by another. A low table, with another couch and two chairs, occupied the middle of the room, a pitcher of milk sitting in the center. "But, um…."

"I believe I like it," Kizmel said, pulling back her hood and giving the room an approving look. "It suits me more than anything in Origia would, I suspect. My people may build mostly from stone, but our homes are among the forests." Her gaze flicked to the beds, and she gave a short nod. "Certainly the beds ought to be more comfortable than _Moonshadow_'s bunks."

"Well, yes, but—" Asuna shot Kirito a hard look; at least he had the good grace to redden and look away. "There's only two of them!"

"I'll take one of the couches," he said quickly. "I've slept in worse places, don't worry about me."

On the one hand, at least he recognized the problem. Though she did wonder just how crazy his sleeping habits were, sometimes. On the other hand, Kirito's immediate concession made her bristle. If there was one thing she'd come to hate from growing up—and would get her killed where she was now—it was the idea of special treatment.

Asuna opened her mouth to argue they should at least draw straws or something, but Kizmel beat her to it. Arching one eyebrow, she said, "Why would you need to do that?" She glanced between them, then at the beds. "The beds are clearly large enough for two."

_Oh. I hadn't thought of that. Huh. I guess it'll be like a sleepover. I wonder if Dark Elf girls do things like that—_

"I've no preference in arrangement," the elf girl continued. "My sister and I have shared often enough, in Her Majesty's service. All the same, Asuna," she added thoughtfully, "as unsettled as you are, perhaps you'd prefer Kirito's company for the night, as you're both human? Or if you'd rather be alone, I have no objection to sharing with him."

Kirito choked, and Asuna goggled. Sharing a cabin with a guy was one thing, there really hadn't been much choice, and by now she was pretty sure he was nothing like—that man. Sharing his bed? _I've only known him two weeks! Even if he's __not __a creep, that's still—that's just—!_

Kizmel's blasé attitude toward sharing with him herself only added to the heat rising in Asuna's face. She was sure the elf girl meant it perfectly platonically, but with the way she dressed for the night, in such a cramped bed—did Kizmel have no sense of personal space at all?

If it hadn't been for the slightest trace of a smile playing at the dusky girl's lips, Asuna would've thought she was oblivious to the redness and sputtering of the two players. As it was, she simply shrugged, and turned toward the door leading into the other room. "Well, we can decide that later. For now, I believe I'd welcome a warm bath myself. This way, I take it, Kirito?"

"Uh. Yeah." Kirito visibly shook himself. His face was still glowing, but he managed to haul himself back to a level of composure Asuna honestly envied. "Yeah, it's right through there. Um, I should probably warn you there's no lock, though…."

"No matter." Kizmel touched the clasp of her cloak, banishing it and her armor in a quick flash of light. "As long as the stairway door locks, that's good enough." She pushed open the door, reaching up to tap the corner of her tunic. "You'll be joining us anyway, won't you, Kirito?"

"_**What?!"**_

* * *

The farmhouse was proof positive, to Asuna's eyes, of what Kirito had told her the very first day: the best deals in Aincrad were the ones you went and looked for, not the obvious ones. The bedroom was palatial enough. The bathroom left her amazed at what could be found on the budget of a single player just a couple weeks in.

Hardwood for the walls, just like the bedroom, with more than adequate shelf space. Thick, cushy carpeting covered the changing area at the northern side, perfect for bare feet right out of the bath. The southern side had polished tile, dominated by a tub even bigger than the one in the Yuuki household, with a gargoyle head for a spout. Easily big enough for three, and more than comfortable for two.

Asuna desperately tried to focus her attention on the lavishness of the place, as she unequipped all her gear and slipped into the steaming water. She'd already been concerned enough about bathing with a guy just in the other room. What had happened in the moments before she'd fled to the bathroom….

_At least I'm pretty sure Kirito-kun won't be coming in,_ she thought, remembering the expression on her partner's face. _I didn't know the game could literally make steam come out of your ears, but I'm glad it does. If it had been _him…_ ugh, I don't even want to think about it._

"Ahh… now _this_ is wonderful, after so long aboard _Moonshadow."_ Kizmel, having quite inappropriately stripped _before_ safely closing the door behind her, slid into the other end of the tub with a sigh and a smile. "I'd no idea humans valued their baths so much. Between that and all the wood, this would be quite the luxury indeed for my people."

"Pretty luxurious for us, too," Asuna told her, breathing in the warmth of the steam and reveling in the feel of the hot water over her skin. It didn't feel quite right, something was just indefinably _off_ about the texture and the way light reflected off it, but it was still a bath, and it was still warm. "Though the wood's normal enough, at least for a farmhouse."

"Something for which I envy your people, then." The elf girl stretched, the motion making Asuna momentarily envious of her—not to mention convincing a corner of her mind that the designer for Dark Elf character models had _definitely_ been a guy. "Elves, Forest and Dark alike, are forbidden to cut down living trees. Wooden homes are the province of the nobility and the very rich."

"Oh, really? Huh." Asuna made a mental note to ask Kirito—later—if there were any Dark Elf towns in _SAO._ The more she heard about their culture, the more interested she became. "I guess airships must be tricky for you to build, then. I remember you mentioning you need to be around living wood, too…."

"Indeed. Truthfully, I know little of the craft myself. A closely-guarded secret of the shipwrights," Kizmel noted dryly. "Rumors say the ships are somehow grown, though how that might work even I couldn't venture to guess."

"Interesting." Sinking deeper into the water, letting it wash over her shoulder, Asuna turned to look at the setting sun dipping into view through the west window. As alien as Aincrad's night sky was, at least the sun rose and set like the real one. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Even in the stories back home, different groups of elves often had their own cultures."

"You have stories of my people? I'd like to hear more about that… later." Kizmel arched one eyebrow in her direction. "Speaking of cultural differences, Asuna. Should I take it that in yours, men and women don't usually bathe together?"

The composure Asuna had struggled to regain vanished in an instant, and with an _eep_ she slipped and dropped completely beneath the water. She choked, scrambled to push herself up, and got her head back into the air in a coughing fit. "N-no!" she got out, through a mouthful of water. "No, they don't!"

"Hm. That's a shame." Turning over in the water, revealing a toned back that made for a surprising contrast with her figure, the elf girl draped her arms over the lip of the tub. Resting her chin on her hands, she looked over at the door to the bedroom. "I had thought it would nice to relax and talk here, just the three of us."

Just for a second, Asuna found herself contemplating the idea. It was true, this was the most comfortable she'd been physically in two weeks, and without armor the whole atmosphere felt more relaxed. A chat in the bath, followed by a good night's sleep in a soft bed—

_With a guy?! I mean, sure, Kirito-kun seems like a good guy, but—I've only even known him for __two__ week__s__, and—!_

She quickly shook her head, long hair dragging through the water. "That's just—it's not done, Kizmel! I mean, that would be completely indecent, and, well—!"

Kizmel rolled over to look at her again, raising a placating hand. "My apologies. Far be it from me to criticize your taboos, especially when I know so little about them. And it's true, such a thing would not be done so casually with total strangers among my people, either. Battlefield standards, however, are more pragmatic. After all, why be so concerned by the presence of those with whom you already trust your life?"

Asuna started to reply sharply, only to bring herself up short. There was, she had to admit, a kind of logic to the NPC's words. If the Dark Elves had a completely integrated military, they probably did have to make concessions. And it was true, whatever doubts she might still have had about Kirito, she _did_ trust him at her back in a fight. He'd had plenty of chances to betray her, and for that matter obviously could've handled himself alone just fine. Still….

_Sharing a bath with him—that's just too far! Even the bed wouldn't be this bad! And it's not like _we_ have to be so pragmatic! That's just—no. No, I'm not ready for that yet!_

…_Yet?_

Before she could examine that bizarre slip of the mental tongue, Kizmel sat up in the bath. "Well, that's a discussion we can have another time," she said. Reaching for a low shelf Asuna hadn't noticed hung over one edge of the tub, the elven knight picked up a brush and bottle of soap. "Could I ask you to scrub my back, Asuna? Normally I would ask my sister, but…."

"Huh? Oh, sure!"

The reference to family made Asuna's heart twinge. Still, as she set to work helping Kizmel wash up, it finally made one thing click in her mind. _Oh, that's right… how could I have forgotten? Even if it's been years…. Well. With the way Mother is, maybe it isn't so surprising._

"Something on your mind, Asuna?"

She started, only then realizing her scrubbing had slowed. Meeting the concerned gaze Kizmel turned over her shoulder, she said, "Sorry. It's just… I realized why this place feels so familiar to me. My grandparents are farmers, and their house is a lot like this. The bath isn't as nice, but still… it's close."

"Ah." Kizmel turned to look out the window, leaving only half her face in view. "Family… yes, I can understand why you would be bothered. My parents are long gone now, and so long as the Skywall stands between us, I cannot even see my sister." She leaned back into the brush; Asuna noticed with a start that the elf girl's muscles were taut with a tension her manner hadn't shown. "…Perhaps that's part of why I was so quick to join your questing, even when it has little to do with my mission."

"I know the feeling."

There were a lot of reasons Asuna had accepted Klein's suggestion that she go with Kirito, that first night. As she'd told the awkward youth, she needed help learning how to survive _SAO._ Right then, she'd needed help just figuring out where to spend the night—even if that had ended up very different from what even he'd expected.

_But even more than that… I don't think I could've handled being alone. There's no one I know in this world, after all. Maybe I could've gone with Klein, but…._

"Kizmel?" she asked, when they'd traded places and it was the elf scrubbing the human's back. "Can I ask you why… you asked us for help, that first night?"

There was a good chance Kizmel couldn't even answer that question. If anything, it had probably been nothing more than a system glitch, which an NPC wouldn't be able to comprehend. But then, an NPC wouldn't normally have been able to make small talk, Asuna was pretty sure. _It's worth a shot._

The long pause that followed seemed to confirm that fear. Then, though, it was Kizmel's turn to slow her brushing, and the elf girl sighed. "…Months ago," she said slowly, "before your people or mine came to this world, I had dreams. Dreams of a battle against Forest Elves, in which my comrades fell, and I stood alone. Until a group of Swordmasters came, interfering in the battle."

Asuna drew in a soft breath. "You mean…?"

"Yes. The very battle in which I first met the two of you." When she looked over her shoulder, Kizmel's gaze was distant, looking at something only she could see. "In the dreams, I told the Swordmasters to leave, as my mission was not their business. They always intervened anyway, but too late—and in the end, I always fell, sacrificing myself to repay their kindness."

_That sounds like what Kirito said happened in the beta, when he encountered Kizmel. She remembers…?_

"I thought those nothing but dreams," the elf girl continued softly, brush slow and steady as it moved up and down Asuna's back. "Until I was given the task of retrieving the Jade Key, and found myself exactly in the straits my dreams had shown." She smiled, a small, sad smile. "Kirito's face, I knew from the dreams. Always the first to come to my aid, and the one whose face I saw as I fell…. When the two of you appeared, I chose to place my trust in you."

There was a lot more Asuna wanted to ask. Like how Kizmel knew Kirito's face, when he would've been using a custom avatar back then, or how she could've had those dreams at all. But even if she'd been as real as she felt in that moment, not an NPC with only programmed knowledge to draw on, it was clear the elf didn't understand it any better than Asuna did.

So, instead, she only reached back, placed her hand on Kizmel's, and smiled. "I'm glad you took the chance, Kizmel. For your sake, and ours."

Kizmel's own smile widened, losing that edge of sadness. "As do I, Asuna."

* * *

_Oh, man. Forget the monsters. Working with two girls all the time is really going to be what kills me. Asuna won't have to hurt me for being a pervert. Kizmel's just going to make me die of shock._

Having very deliberately turned the desk chair to face the wall directly opposite the bathroom door, Kirito waited for his face to cool off. And hoped Asuna would, somehow, forget what had happened by the time she came out. He knew _he_ wasn't going to forget any time soon. The sight of Kizmel's completely bare back, short though the glimpse had been before Asuna had ushered her behind a closed door….

He quickly shook his head, trying to push the screenshot-clear image out of his mind. They were comrades, maybe edging toward friends, and it was just plain rude to think of either of them like that. He absolutely wasn't going to think about what was going on in the other room, even when he heard Asuna's voice rise in shrill surprise.

Not looking at a door was _not_ supposed to require a dice roll on his Willpower stat.

_Besides, I'm supposed to be thinking of what we're going to do next. From the look of it, players have only started doing the Tolbana quests, so even with how long we spent with _Moonshadow_ we've got time to catch up. At this rate it'll be a week before anybody even thinks of tackling the Skywall Tower._

Which meant, for the moment, it was probably best to just do what they'd already started: work through the local quests. The trick being that Kirito had pretty much raced through them as fast as he could during the beta, and gotten distracted by the bigger quests on later islands. His memory of the area was a bit fuzzier than he really wanted to admit to his comrades.

_So… I'd better try and find out if Argo got the full version. _Kirito brought up his menu, navigated to the messaging tab—and paused, fingers poised over the ethereal keyboard. _Um. Maybe I should wait until morning?_ A quick glance out the window showed the sun was falling fast, so it wouldn't be long before Aincrad's twin moons rose. _Then I can make sure to meet her somewhere else, maybe without the chance of blackmail material—_

There was a knock at the door. Two sharp knocks, a pause, and one heavier.

…_No. No way. The timing—that can't possibly be—_

The pattern repeated itself. Then again, quicker and harder. Then, "Oi! I know you're in there, Kii-bou! Mind opening up, and not leavin' a girl out in the cold?"

Kirito was torn between two reactions. _She really is a girl?!_ _…Oh, no, I am _so_ doomed!_

Nowhere to run. Even if tried going out one of the windows, he'd never get away before she noticed. His next thought was to just ignore her, pretend he wasn't there. Except—it was obvious _someone_ was renting the farmhouse, and knowing her she'd track down who easily enough. The questions she'd raise just from that might be even worse than just letting her in.

No time to think of a better option. He'd just have to hope his comrades stayed quiet in the other room, and didn't come out at an awkward moment.

Just as the knocking pattern began again, Kirito steeled himself and pulled open the door. On the other side—well. He didn't recognize the face beneath the hooded cloak, but the height looked about right. And there was absolutely no mistaking the trio of whisker marks on either cheek. "Um… hi?"

The girl didn't even blink. Just peered up at him for a second, grinned, and pushed past him into the bedroom. "Kii-bou! 'Bout time I tracked ya down. Nice digs, by th' way, knew you'd be coming here sooner or later."

Nonplussed, he stared as she dropped into a chair and casually swung her feet up onto the table. "…You recognized me, Argo? Just like that?"

"'Course I did. Kii-bou's Kii-bou, I'd know ya no matter what face you're wearing." She shot him an appraising look. "…Not a bad face, I'll say. Too bad you'd never even notice a girl…. Anyway! What's been up, Kii-bou? I figured you'd be first one outta Origia, but I didn't think you'd disappear completely!"

If there was one thing that convinced him this was really Argo the Rat, it was her whirlwind of an attitude. Buffeted like he'd been in a tornado, Kirito dropped into the couch opposite her chair. "Launch day was kind of crazy, Argo," he pointed out. "And I was barely out of town before I found out the hard way that content's changed from the beta, on top of the death penalty."

"Oh ho?" Argo's eyes narrowed; he thought it was too much to hope for that it was a sign she was getting serious. "Just what _did_ ya run into, Kii-bou, that's kept ya off the grid for two weeks?"

_Oh, no. Not _that_ easy, Argo._ "You're an info broker, Argo," he said, sparring for time. "Nothing's free with you, give _or_ take." He folded his hands, affecting a narrow-eyed gaze of his own. "How about you tell me how things have been with the other players, and I tell you know what I know in exchange?"

"Hm." She looked at him in silence for a moment, then smiled, showing teeth. "Clever, clever, Kii-bou! Awright, deal. From the rumors I've been hearing, you've prolly got some juicy info yerself, so—"

_Click._

That soft sound was the only warning Kirito had, the sound of a doorknob turning, before Doom was upon him. Out of the bathroom came first Asuna, chestnut hair hanging limp over her elven nightgown. "Honestly," she was saying over her shoulder, "just a towel is _not_ enough when you're sharing a room with a guy—_eek!"_

Kizmel, long legs and far too much of her chest on full display, was indeed wearing only a towel as she followed the fencer out. "I will be glad to make concessions to human customs, Asuna, but I really do not see your problem here. This is hardly any more immodest than my nightgown…. Oh." Long ears twitching, she looked at Argo curiously. "I see we have a guest."

The elf was the picture of calm. Asuna's face was already beginning to steam, and Kirito could feel his own face reaching its ignition point. Argo… Argo was looking from one face to another, eyes wide with what Kirito thought was uncharacteristic surprise.

That surprise turned quickly to a grin, and a low whistle. "Well, _well!_ Kii-bou, I take back what I said earlier. But ya gotta tell me, when'd you get so good with the ladies? Inquiring minds need to know!"

Steam erupted from Asuna's ears, every visible centimeter of skin turned bright red, and her hair frizzed in an emotional expression Kirito had never before seen in-game. "It's not like that!" she burst out, shaking her head fast enough to make her hair even wilder. "I'm—he's just—we're just in the same party to survive! That's all!"

"Kirito is a fine young man," Kizmel said, favoring him with a nod and a small smile. "But to my people, two weeks is a bit soon to begin a courtship." A beat, as her smile took on an edge Kirito didn't trust one bit. "…Perhaps another month, and we might consider it?"

"_Kizmel!"_ Asuna shouted, voice rising into a plaintive wail. _"Not! Helping!"_

Kirito's resolve broke, and before he could think he was up and running for the door—only to immediately trip as Argo sent a chair skidding into his legs. Before he could hit the floor, Asuna's hand seized his collar, and Kizmel caught his arm. "Now, now," the elf girl murmured, under the fencer's incoherent sputtering. "I believe explanations are owed all around, Kirito."

"Oh, I have _got_ to get this story!" Argo was showing fangs now, in the most dangerous smile he'd ever seen from her. "Kii-bou. Ya two-timin' these nice girls?"

"_It's not like that!"_

* * *

"So," Argo said a few minutes later, moonlight streaming in through the east window. "Lemme see if I got this right." She pointed at Asuna, sitting stiffly upright on the couch, as far from Kirito as she could manage. "You met 'im on launch day, a total noob, an' when the samurai-wannabe left, you stuck with Kii-bou to learn the ropes."

"That's exactly it." Asuna's face had resumed something approaching normal color, and her hair had settled, but she still spoke stiffly, and hid her mouth behind a glass of milk. "There was a riot starting, and Kirito-kun was the only one besides Klein I knew."

"Good choice. Kii-bou knows _SAO_ like nobody else—an' unlike yours truly, he won't charge ya for it." The Rat's serious look lasted maybe three seconds, before lapsing back into mock-solemnity. "Then he tried to lead you to Horunka, only to stumble on a Dark Elf fightin' a Forest Elf?"

"Indeed they did, and for that I owe them my life." How Kizmel managed such poise, sitting in that chair while still in a towel, Kirito couldn't fathom. She only gave Argo a calm nod, with another smile at the much more embarrassed humans. "I'm truly fortunate that they appeared when they did, and were so quick to honor the Last Alliance."

"Got that right. Can't imagine many would even remember it, 'specially now." Argo shook her head. "Figured the elves might show up quick, but there was some real luck here… anyway. So you two have been workin' with the Dark Elves for two weeks, huh? Well, _that_ explains some things."

After the pandemonium had settled—a little—Kirito had found himself forced to give his story first after all. If only to keep Argo from selling stories even more compromising than the truth. He counted himself lucky she was quick to accept that truth.

Though he doubted it was going to keep her from teasing him about it. For the rest of his life.

_I guess I shouldn't be surprised she's taking Kizmel's weirdly high AI so easily. Argo probably cares more about trolling than logic, here._

Kirito loudly cleared his throat, determinedly focusing on Argo and not the inappropriately-clad elf. "Explains what, Argo? Just what's been going on, while Asuna and I have been out of touch?"

"Well, first? That airship's been raising a _lot_ o' questions, Kii-bou." The info broker shrugged, pausing to take a bite out of the cream-covered piece of bread Kirito had handed over in an open bribe to try and keep the teasing down. "Remember, Kayaba did his little speech with a big airship, an' no player's gonna have one 'til we take down the first Skywall. Then you've got the odd beta player recognizing it as a Dark Elf ship, an' wondering what the heck was goin' on. Honestly? Prolly one of the reasons enough people got together to push through to Tolbana was to find out what was going on."

"Interesting." Kizmel frowned thoughtfully. "Captain Emlas had hoped we would keep a lower profile than that, but I for one can't gainsay the idea that we helped galvanize the Swordmasters…. Pity there are not more of them."

"Give 'em time, Kii-chan. 'Tis a miracle this many are ready to push." Before the elf girl could react to Argo's nickname, the Rat's face turned deadly seriously. "We oughtta be thanking you, Kii-chan. We need the push." She pushed herself to her feet, padding over to look out the west window. After a long pause, staring out at Aincrad's alien sky, she turned to look straight at Kirito and Asuna, and the former felt a sudden, fast-growing dread. "Kii-bou. Aa-chan. Two thousand players are dead."

The numbers were like a punch to the gut. Kirito found himself clutching the couch cushions as the room swayed around him. Asuna slumped against him; a quick glance at her revealed her face had gone a pale gray. Even Kizmel's eyes had gone wide, despite the Knight's backstory of a long war. They'd known there were some deaths, of course—Kayaba had said as much in his "tutorial" that first day, and he'd figured some people would've died fighting mobs before they learned the caution the death game demanded. But….

"Two thousand?" he got out, voice cracking. "H-how…?"

"Don't think you quite know what it was like in Origia, right after Kayaba's announcement, Kii-bou." Argo looked grim—haunted, even. Kirito suddenly wondered how much of her trolling had been her way of coping. "Chaos in the streets. Everybody trapped, the only way out to fight, over four hundred people dead just from people tryin' to help on the outside?

"Some people, the brave or the stupid, snapped and went out to try an' be 'heroes'. Without makin' sure they knew what they were doing. And others…." She closed her eyes. "Kii-bou. I think the cruelest thing Kayaba did was leave so many ledges. It's a _long_ way down—an' you know the Cloud Sea swallows all."

"…They jumped," Asuna whispered, trembling against Kirito's shoulder. "Why? Why would they just…?"

Kirito didn't trust himself to speak. He knew from stories about "trapped in a game" scenarios that dying to exit was sometimes a thing. His own belief, as he'd told Asuna weeks before, was that they'd have been out the first night if that had been true, but he understood the logic. That was probably what some of them had been thinking.

_Some. Dammit. Six years ago, I cursed them all for not doing _something,_ but at least that wasn't real. …I thought it wasn't real. But that's how people really are, isn't it? Throw most people into a situation they can't handle, and they just… break._

_Never thought I'd consider myself lucky._

"Well." Kizmel's quiet, calm, _weary_ voice dragged Kirito's attention back to her. "If anything is likely to convince Captain Emlas of the truth, I suppose this is it. Not even he will be so suspicious as to think so many of you came here only to kill yourselves."

"If there's any silver lining to come outta this, Kii-chan, I'll take it," Argo told her. "Kii-bou," she continued, looking back at him. "This is kinda why I was lookin' for ya. Right now, we need everybody we can get clearing the dungeons. I know, I know, you're not a leader. Ain't the point. You're _doing_ something. An' you've even got a girl with you."

Asuna pushed herself up, seeming to notice only then where she'd been leaning. "We're just battle partners," she said, indignation bringing some color back to her face. "That's all there is to it!"

Argo raised both hands, some of the familiar humor coming back to her expression. "Didn't say a word otherwise, did I? Point is, Aa-chan, you're a girl, an' you're fighting. That'll get the macho guys going, and might just get some of the other girls moving. Might not be many of us here, but we all count!" She grinned, then sobered again. Mostly. "Better yet, ya got a Dark Elf with ya. I didn't dare to hope you'd run into any of them yet."

"There is little my people can do to help right now, Argo," Kizmel said, somehow managing to look martial in a bath towel. "We have only one ship here, and Captain Emlas looks to his own first. Even when we can regroup with others, Her Majesty Queen Idhrendis would be the one to make any decisions of formal alliance.

"That being said." She sat up in her chair, squaring her shoulders. "For now, our immediate interests align, and I owe much to these two Swordmasters. For as long as our paths are met, they may count on my sword."

Kirito knew she was just an NPC. He knew that even if she wasn't, that was at least half pure pragmatism, her questline blocked as much as the Swordmasters' progress by the Skywall. He tried to hold to that knowledge, to keep his detachment. To keep safe.

But it still felt warm. That declaration, and the smile the elf girl turned on him and his impromptu partner. _I… haven't felt like this since…._

Hurriedly pushing that memory away, he glanced at Asuna. She had her own demons, he knew, even if he'd never dared ask. The way she'd proclaimed her life over that first night had said volumes, whether he knew the details or not. So really, he wasn't at all surprised to see her smile in response to the elven knight's words.

"Even one sword's a big help, Kii-chan," Argo said, giving Kizmel a nod and fangy smile, and walked back to the table. "An' it sounds like we can count on ya to put a good word in fer us, when the time comes. Right now, I'll take it." She brought up her menu then, flipped through it, and materialized a small book. "Remind me later to ask you how much of our menu stuff—I think elves call it 'Mystic Scribing'?—you can use. In the meantime… here ya go, Kii-bou. Story fer a story, an' everything I got so far 'bout the Tolbana area."

She slid it across the table, and Kirito picked it up with some trepidation. He wasn't sure the local quest info had been part of the initial deal, and it always made him nervous when Argo the Rat seemed generous. "Anything I should know right off?" he asked warily.

"Maybe a couple things." Argo dropped back into her chair and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, bracing her chin on her hands. "First? I'm not the only one who's been lookin' for ya. They've been usin' cut-outs, I think, so the middleman's name prolly won't help ya. Though I'll sell it if ya really want," she added, with another grin. "Second? …There's been an Integrity Knight nosing around. They never get real close to land, an' I don't think anybody but beta testers even know what they are, but they're checking things out. Might wanna keep an eye out."

That put Kirito's hairs right on end. He had no idea why someone would be looking for _him,_ of all people. He hadn't exactly been unknown during the beta, but he couldn't imagine anyone would be that interested in reconnecting with him.

That was more confusing than anything else. The confirmation that he'd really seen an Integrity Knight that first evening was beyond ominous. It was just as likely to mean nothing but Kayaba goading the players on, true. His instincts—his memories—insisted it couldn't be that simple.

Before he could follow that thought very far, though, Argo pushed herself to her feet. "Welp, that's all I really got to tell ya tonight, guys," she said, heading for the door. "Stay safe. And Kii-bou?" she added over her shoulder, grinning. "Have fun tonight—but try to get _some_ sleep, 'kay?"

"_**Argo!"**_

* * *

Asuna had expected to sleep better, in a full-on bed in a human-style farmhouse. The soft mattress was certainly much more comfortable than _Moonshadow_'s bunks, and there was more than room enough for her to stretch. It was, really, not that different from the guest room she'd sometimes slept in at her grandparents' house.

That was probably part of why she wasn't sleeping, just past midnight. Staring up at the hardwood ceiling, she realized this was the first time she'd slept in a proper bed since becoming trapped inside _SAO,_ and it was enough to make her homesick. Even for the home she'd been trying to escape, for just a little while.

_But that's not the worst of it. Not really._

"Sleep eludes you, Asuna?"

She tried not to jump. For all she knew, Kirito had managed to get to sleep, and she didn't want to wake him. Taking a steadying breath, Asuna turned to look at her bedmate. "It's a little hard tonight, yeah," she admitted, voice pitched so only elven ears could hear. "I've got a lot to think about, Kizmel."

Kizmel had, in the end, ended up sharing Asuna's bed for the night, Kirito having assured her—with more than a little red in his face—that he'd be fine by himself. Fortunately for the comfort of all involved, or at least the two players, the beds were indeed large enough for two, with a little breathing space between. For all Kizmel's blithe unconcern, the knight was sticking solidly to her own side.

Now the elf girl nodded slowly, plainly unsurprised by Asuna's insomnia. "It is a great deal to take in," she said, voice as soft as the player's. "My own people's losses have been dear enough, since this waking dream began, yet in the end they're but the latest in a war that has lasted a lifetime. For your people…."

"Two thousand dead," Asuna got out, looking back up at the ceiling. "In just two weeks…. My people haven't fought a real war in almost a century, Kizmel. And we're not soldiers." She swallowed. "It… honestly, it doesn't quite feel real."

Some of that sense of unreality, she was sure, was because of _SAO_'s nature. Those two thousand dead wouldn't even have left bodies, even those who hadn't fallen into the Cloud Sea. None of them would've felt any pain, any more than she had when fighting Forest Elves and monsters. There was never blood, just polygons and particle effects.

Even changing clothes was done by menu selections, making for a surreal clash with the intense realism of the world itself. _And I'm sharing a bed with a Dark Elf._

"So it always is, with war," Kizmel told her, drawing her gaze back to the elf. There was a sadness in those violet eyes, making it hard to remember in that moment she was only a program. "No one steps onto the battlefield prepared. Not the first time. Those who can adapt learn to live with it, but it's never easy." She paused, a flicker of a darker shadow passing through her eyes. "At least, it should not be. We all must be able to move forward under that burden, but it is a terrible thing to _accept_ it."

Wise words. Asuna didn't really want to think what kind of person she'd be, if she _could_ shrug off so many deaths. She knew she had to change, to survive in this world—but not like that. _Not even for the abstract. Those numbers aren't just statistics, to the people who knew them._

At a stray thought, she glanced over at the other bed. To all appearances, under the light of Aincrad's moons, Kirito was sound asleep. Whether that was true, she didn't know. She suspected, though, that he wasn't. He'd taken the news as hard as she had. Besides which….

"I wonder," she found herself murmuring, "if Kirito-kun knew any of them."

"Ah." Kizmel followed her gaze. "He participated in what you call the 'beta test', did he not? It does seem possible. …Certainly, something wounded him deeply, once." The elf girl paused, a frown creasing lilac brows. "And the news of an Integrity Knight clearly troubles him. Has he encountered the Axiom Church's knights before?"

"I don't see how. He told me no one in the beta got far enough to meet one." Still, Asuna found herself frowning, too. "You're right, though. That's really got him spooked, doesn't it? And… whatever it was that happened when he got the Anneal Blade. He _still_ won't give me a straight answer about that…."

"Indeed. Nonetheless…." There was a rustling of sheets, and a hand clasped Asuna's. Startled, she turned to look back at Kizmel, and found the elf girl giving her a gentle smile. "Kirito is hardly the only one bearing a hidden burden, now is he?"

Asuna flinched. _I… haven't told either of them, have I?_ Not about her mother, about her family's expectations. About how stifled she'd felt, before her brother finally introduced her to the concept of the NerveGear, and to _Sword Art Online._ Not about why her life as she knew it had ended, come what may in Kayaba's death game.

Not why she woke sometimes from nightmares of home, to the comfort of Aincrad.

"Kizmel, I…."

Kizmel shook her head. "You need not say anything, Asuna," she said. "We've known each other a fortnight. Far too soon for any of us to so readily share our secret worries. Whether your fears be great or small, I'll not pry. I believe Kirito deserves the same courtesy."

"…You're right. Thank you, Kizmel." Asuna took a deep breath, letting tension out with it, and turned a small smile on the elf girl. "Still. _You_ have secrets, Kizmel? I'm surprised, with how, um, open you've been."

"Heh. I simply see little reason to hide from comrades, in such privacy. You'd hardly see me walk the streets so indecently." Kizmel squeezed Asuna's hand, turned her face back to the ceiling, and let her eyes fall closed. "Oh, yes, Asuna. Even I have my burdens." A sigh, so quiet Asuna wasn't even sure she'd heard it. "Someday, I hope to share them…."

* * *

Two thousand dead, in only two weeks.

Kirito had known the moment it became clear that Kayaba was telling the truth that things would be bad. That very, very few players would be remotely prepared to fight for their lives, assuming they could even come to grips with the reality of the situation. _He_ hadn't been sure he'd survive, even with his foreknowledge. Without Kizmel, he wasn't convinced he and Asuna would have made it through those two weeks at all.

But two thousand… in his worst nightmares, he hadn't believed it would be so bad. Hadn't been able to picture so many would snap so hard that they leapt off into the Cloud Sea.

_I'm not good with people. That doesn't mean it doesn't make me sick to think of so many dying. …We need to push through. If we can open the sky, even a little, maybe that'll give people hope. __If we can bring enough people together, maybe we can even hold off the Integrity Knights._

Kirito kept that thought close, as he and his partners worked their way through Tolbana's quests. He was no leader, but if he could be part of the example that brought _someone_ to the front of the efforts to break through the Skywall, well, he'd do his best.

Out of respect for Kizmel, they abstained from a few quests involving cutting down trees. Otherwise, the three of them took on everything they could find, from gathering small plants to thinning out one type of monster or another. At Asuna's insistence, they repeated **[The Heifer Strikes Back]** once a day, building up a reserve of cream to make their rations tolerable.

How Kizmel interpreted that quest resetting itself every day, Kirito wasn't quite sure. She'd only muttered once about the oddities of Swordmasters and Kayaba's illusions, and otherwise simply enjoyed the fruits of the quest. Even when it ought to have been clear to her that the other players they encountered from time to time were somehow going through the non-repeatable quests they already had.

Probably, he supposed, it was factored into the way she viewed Aincrad as a magic simulacrum. He found it more than a little disturbing that she was programmed to recognize _SAO_ as fake, while still considering herself real, but it did make it easier to talk with her.

Day by day, they grew stronger—even Kizmel, whom Kirito was surprised to discover didn't have as much of a level advantage over players as her counterpart in the beta. Before long, he and Asuna had caught up to her level of ten.

They also ran out of quests that same day. Fortunately, that night Argo brought news that the Skywall Tower's entrance had been found—and the next morning, Captain Emlas set them on their next task.

* * *

November 28th, 2032

* * *

Aincrad's moons had barely set, dawn only beginning to break, when _Moonshadow_ eased down into the hollow of Einsla's southern mountains. So early, chances were good no one had seen the dark ship make the flight from her crash site. Surrounded by tall peaks, only another airship or a particularly dedicated mountaineer could possibly have spied on the ship now.

That was Captain Emlas' preference, and Kirito couldn't say he disagreed. He was expecting enough problems if more players got wind of what he and Asuna had been up to the last few weeks. This, he was more than a little worried could set off another riot.

_Which is the last thing any of us need,_ he thought, crouched along the port railing on _Moonshadow_'s deck. _People are just starting to recover from the launch day riot as it is. If any of us are ever going to get out of here, we can't afford any more setbacks._

So far, though, there really was no sign anyone had noticed them, or had the means to follow. That left Kirito's attention free to gauge distances as _Moonshadow_ descended toward the crack in the rocky ground. Too high, and this wouldn't work. Too low, and the ship would crash—again—destroying the goodwill they'd built up with the Dark Elf captain.

After a few moments, he turned to the ship's sterncastle and gave a sharp nod. The helmsman nodded back, and with only the faintest jolt the ship halted in midair, her engines quieting to a whisper.

"So." Captain Emlas offered a nod of his own, with maybe the barest hint of a smile. "At least you've a good grasp of distances, Swordmaster. Perhaps you'll be up to the task ahead of you after all." He turned to the hatch leading back into the ship, adding over his shoulder, "We'll leave as soon as the three of you are down, and return at dusk. Do make good use of your time."

"Can't he _ever_ just say 'good job'?" Asuna muttered, walking to join Kirito by the rail. "I mean, honestly…."

Kizmel chuckled, following her over. "I fear my people's airship captains—and engineers, at that—tend to be a rather stern lot, at least where their ships are concerned. Though given the risks of sailing, they do perhaps have reason." She lifted one eyebrow. "Speaking of risks. You _have_ done this before, I trust, Kirito?"

He really didn't think he deserved the pointed look Asuna was giving him. Still, Kirito's smile was honestly confident. "We made it to the Tenth Island in the beta test. There's a few places even tighter than this out there." _Though I never partied with girls for this kind of thing before. Well, except Argo, but she's… different._

Forcing thoughts of the Rat out of his mind, he carefully triggered his wrist-grapnel, just enough to let it swing free. Ramming it into _Moonshadow_'s deck wouldn't be half as bad as a crash, but he was still pretty sure Emlas wouldn't appreciate it. Hooking it onto the rail by hand was much safer for all concerned.

With it ready, he gestured to Asuna, who came closer with a dubious expression. "Don't even think of taking advantage of this, Kirito-kun," she warned. "I'll tell Argo."

_Eep._ That was _probably_ an empty threat—she couldn't possibly be any more eager to give the Rat incriminating info than he was—but Kirito had no intention of testing that. He was, therefore, _very_ careful of where his hand went as he wrapped his free arm around Asuna's waist. _Well, at least this'll be over quickly._

With her arms securely around his back, he stepped up onto the rail. "I'll be right back," he told Kizmel. "This shouldn't take long."

She nodded. "Be careful. …It really should be me going first, however. As strong as you both already are, I _am_ a Knight…."

"And your duty is get that Key to safety," Asuna reminded her. "We'll be fine, Kizmel, I promise." She glanced past the elf girl. "If anything, I'm surprised you're not sending _him_ down first."

"_Yip!"_

Kizmel glanced back at the wolf sitting behind her, currently acting more like an eager hound, and rolled her eyes. "Leaving aside the fact that it's also my duty to bring Cavall safely home to my sister, I'd not saddle Kirito with trying to carry him. For a hunter, Cavall has considerable difficulty sitting still." She waved a hand. "Go, before I change my mind."

Deciding he didn't really want to know which part she was considering, Kirito let go of the rail, and let himself fall. Asuna managed to mostly stifle her yelp, and only in the second before the grapnel's line went taut did she cling tight enough to make things awkward.

Then they were descending at a more steady pace, down through the crack into the cavern below. "Okay," Asuna said, a few meters down, "this may be the weirdest thing I've done since we've been here. …Is it odd that that makes it easier to take, somehow?"

"Most of the fun of being here is doing things we couldn't back home, right?" Kirito flexed his left hand carefully, adjusting their rate of descent. He _had_ done this before, but it'd been a while, and the grapnel could be tricky with fine motion. Especially when doing down. "Right now, I think we need that more than ever."

"I won't argue with you on that."

Her tone made him wonder, not for the first time, what kind of nightmares Asuna had, especially on the nights when they hadn't worked themselves to exhaustion. He knew he had all too many of his own.

Soon enough, their feet touched the stone ground, and Asuna quickly stepped away. "Dark in here," she said after a moment. "There'd better be some torches around here somewhere."

"There usually are, in places like this. Though I prefer the Nightvision skill, when it becomes available, torches make it too hard to see anything coming outside their radius—shutting up now." Shying away from the glare she sent his way, he coughed and glanced upward. "So, uh, you good here for a minute?"

"Probably. If nothing _in the dark_ tries to eat me." She waved a hand, drawing her rapier with the other and pointedly turning to face the tunnel. "Go."

Kirito went, ascending at a rate just a bit faster than was probably safe. At least it was easier with just his own weight to worry about—and he even managed to avoid bashing his head on _Moonshadow_'s hull, successfully using his momentum to flip up and over.

Kizmel's eyebrows went up at his abrupt arrival. "Did something happen? I heard no sounds of battle…."

"Just fine," he said quickly. "Just, um, I figured we should get moving as quick as we can, so Captain Emlas can get the ship under cover."

"Ah. You irritated Asuna." Shaking her head with a small smile, she stepped in close. "No matter. It's good to see how well the two of you get along."

If provoking Asuna's sharp tongue was "getting along", Kirito hated to think how Kizmel defined arguments. …Which was still safer to think about than the fact that she'd unequipped her metal armor to lighten the load, and unlike Asuna seemed to have no problem at all pressing herself tightly against him the whole way down.

_This has _got_ to violate the anti-harassment code. I thought the whole idea was to protect the NPCs from perverted players?_

Either that was something else Kayaba had changed, or an NPC initiating the contact wasn't a possibility the system had expected. Either way, Kirito got much more of an idea of Kizmel's figure than he was comfortable with by the time they reached the tunnel floor, and he found himself very grateful Asuna was still facing the other way.

Kizmel unhurriedly untangled herself from him when their feet were on solid ground, and with a flick of his wrist Kirito pulled his grapnel loose. "Well, we're all here," he said, hoping the darkness hid his blush. "Let's go see what the Key to the Lost Grave opens."

There was a flash, and suddenly Asuna was holding a lit torch in her free hand. "Found one!" she said triumphantly. "…So, you don't know what's in here either, Kirito-kun?"

"I don't even know if this was here in the beta test," he said, following in the fencer's wake. "I never noticed it back then—though honestly, once the first Skywall was down and airships became available, there wasn't much reason for me to explore the rest of Einsla." He shrugged. "If it was here, I doubt it had anything to do with the Dark Elves."

Personally, though, Kirito was leaning toward this particular tunnel not having existed in the beta at all. Dark Elven tunnels and caverns had a particular look to them, and this one was no different. Black stone, gleaming in the torchlight, and smoother than any natural cavern. Not quite the disturbing, light-drinking obsidian of another NPC faction he remembered, this darkness somehow felt comforting, in an odd way.

_I suppose they could've reskinned this part of the map since the beta, but… somehow it doesn't _feel_ like it._

A few meters down the tunnel, with nothing but more onyx walls yet in sight, Kizmel quietly cleared her throat. "I've been meaning to ask. Just what exactly is this 'beta test' you keep mentioning? I gather it gave you advance knowledge of Aincrad, such that most Swordmasters lack, but so far the context has escaped me."

"Um." Kirito's feet slipped on the smooth stone at that question; he hoped his quick scrabble for balance wasn't too obvious. _How in the world do I explain _that_, anyway?_ Kizmel was astonishingly intelligent for an NPC, to the point that even he—maybe especially he—sometimes had trouble remembering that was exactly what she was. Kayaba had even written into the lore an explanation for the world—and himself—that allowed NPCs to react naturally to explanations of the Swordmasters in general, and the trap they'd fallen into in particular.

But how to fit the idea of a "preview" of the "transitory world" Kizmel believed _SAO_ to be….

"I'm pretty new to this stuff myself," Asuna said, into the awkward silence. "And I wasn't part of the beta myself. But, um… think of it this way, Kizmel: it was basically a test of the spell that brought us here for real. It wasn't complete, but it gave the people involved at least something of an idea of what the real thing would be like." She glanced back. "Is that about right, Kirito-kun?"

"Y-yeah. More or less." Kirito relaxed, the sudden tension in his shoulders leaving as quick as it had come. It wasn't an exact metaphor—as far as he'd been able to tell, the full archipelago had been in the beta, there just hadn't been time to see all of it—but it was close enough. "It looks like it missed some details, though."

"Ah, I see." Kizmel nodded, looking thoughtful. "Which is why you knew _of_ my people, yet did not expect to encounter us here." She chuckled, the sound echoing off the stone walls around them. "Not surprising, really. Kayaba may have used information gained from us for your 'beta test', but Lyusula does prefer her secrets. Even I knew of neither the Jade Key's resting place nor our current destination before I was given my current mission."

_Huh. That's… pretty clever, actually._ That was one of the galling things about Kayaba Akihiko, and the death game in which he'd trapped twenty thousand players: his attention to detail was almost impossible _not_ to admire. At least for a gamer. _Which still doesn't explain that one NPC in Horunka. Kayaba _couldn't_ have known about that. There's just no way—_

"So, you _do_ know what's up ahead, Kizmel?" Asuna looked back again, torchlight dancing over her questioning look. "What is it?"

The elf girl chuckled again. "Oh, now that would be spoiling the surprise, Asuna. Let me just say, it may not be as impressive as it should, but I believe you'll be pleased nonetheless."

Kirito blinked. "…Does it always sound like that when I'm giving out beta info?"

"Yes," Asuna said firmly, turning back to face the path ahead. "Yes, it does. You're impossible. And _you,_ Kizmel, had better not be picking up his bad habits!"

Kizmel's laughter, bright and cheering, was somehow worth the taste of his own medicine. "Asuna, I believe _his_ habits will be the least of your worries, before long… and in any case, you needn't wait much longer for answers."

If he hadn't already gotten used to the light from Asuna's torch, the sudden brightness ahead would've—well, come as close to hurting as _SAO_ ever allowed. Deep blue flames, flanking an onyx door that just barely stood out from the surrounding stone. Almost featureless, except for a keyhole and a carved handle.

It didn't take a beta tester to know what to do from there. Stepping in front, Kirito slipped in the key Captain Emlas had given him, turned it till it clicked, and pulled the door open. On the other side—

"Wow…." Asuna tossed the torch back into the tunnel, letting it crash to the stone and go out, and ran into the cavern beyond. Wide and tall, it must've been two hundred meters across, and fifty high; Kirito realized it was dug up into one of the mountains above. Compared to the tunnel, it was also surprisingly bright, lit by a vast opening on the far side that led out into the sky. So low beneath Einsla's surface, the roiling Cloud Sea lent its own light from below.

Following Asuna in, Kirito found his boots sinking into dried, crumbling soil, not ringing against solid rock. The walls and ceiling were as smooth as the access tunnel, but oddly gray and mottled instead of pure black. And around them, scattered throughout the cavern….

"I suppose this is to be expected," Kizmel mused, looking around at the petrified, long-dead trees that still stood in the dry soil. "None of my people have been been in here since the Sealing, like as not. Hardly a shadow of the grandeur it would once have had. Nonetheless…." She smiled. "It's good to see a little of home. May we soon see this as it would be alive, on the next island."

"Can we use that?" Asuna pointed to the long, lean shape cradled by the cavern's outer edge, battered and wrapped in vines—the only sign of life Kirito had yet seen in the cavern. "She looks to be in bad shape, but…."

Kizmel nodded, walking up to a wooden flank. "Oh, yes," she murmured, laying her fingers against it. "It will take time, time we might otherwise spend charting the Skywall Tower. But there's life here yet." She turned a warm smile on the two players. "Come, my comrades. When the Skywall falls, we shall be ready."

* * *

December 2nd, 2032

* * *

Kizmel hadn't seen nearly as much of Tolbana as she'd expected, in the two weeks since first passing through the town's Safe Haven wards. At the time, even after two weeks of sharing a cabin with two humans, she had not quite realized the two of them were nearly as uncomfortable with other Swordmasters as were her people.

Between staying in a house on the very edge of town and spending most of every day dealing with tasks in the surrounding wilderness, she thought she'd seen no more than half of Tolbana. Until the day Argo the Rat brought word that someone had called a meeting, she'd no idea what the far end of the town held.

Certainly she'd not known of the amphitheater dominating the northwest side. Not until she walked through the crumbling gate, Kirito to her right and Asuna beyond him. She found herself immediately wondering what purpose it had originally served, given that its state of disrepair suggested the current residents of Tolbana had no use for it.

Stone, it was, battered and weathered, with seven levels of bench-like tiers descending to a hollow. Dominating that low center was a fountain, at least as dilapidated as the rest of the amphitheater yet still bubbling with fresh water.

At the least, Tolbana's disinterest was apparently convenient for the Swordmasters. When the three of them walked in and found seats on one of the highest tiers, there were already dozens present, all of them with the arms and armor of the summoned warriors.

"So many," Asuna murmured, face hidden in the shadow of her hood. "I'm glad to see it. After everything, I didn't think so many would show up for this, knowing how dangerous it is."

Kizmel nodded, still carefully concealed by her own enchanted hood. Though over one hundred Swordmasters had ventured as far as Tolbana, from what she'd observed—and Argo had, for a price, reported—most of them were still cautiously building up their strength and resources. She could only remember seeing a few parties wandering into the Skywall Tower, while she and her comrades had been exploring it.

Their group had mostly avoided those others, and indeed the Swordmasters in general seemed unfortunately wary of one another. Nonetheless, she recognized a few of the faces now ringing the amphitheater, and a few others stood out from the crowd. A very tall axeman, skin darker than any other Swordmaster she'd seen—were it not for his ears, she might've thought him one of her own people—was the first she noticed, sitting straight and confident a couple of tiers down. He was also bald, the first such she'd seen among the Swordmasters.

Not too far from him sat a swordsman who might've been made as his antithesis: short, pale, and with the oddest hair Kizmel had seen in her entire life. _That reminds me __of__—what was the plant near Castle Galey? A cactus? How very strange._ Though it was hard to tell from behind and at a distance, he seemed quite tense.

By contrast, the man who caught her eye on the opposite end of the amphitheater might've been made of stone. Gray-haired, face hidden by a peculiar white mask, he wore a blue robe edged in white triangles. He also carried a curved sword Kirito had once told her was a katana, and he sat with the utter stillness that told Kizmel he knew exactly what he was doing with it.

Down close to the fountain that lay at the center of the amphitheater, her gaze was drawn to someone who could hardly seem to sit still. A girl, looking somewhat younger than Kirito or Asuna, with dark hair and what looked suspiciously like an Anneal Blade slung over her back. In stark contrast to every other Swordmaster Kizmel could see, she was the picture of excited anticipation.

"You think this is a lot?" Kirito said, breaking into her observations. When she looked his way, he was shaking his head. "There's only forty-four people here, counting us and Argo—and don't expect to see Argo in the boss fight. That's four short of a full raid party."

Kizmel perked up, interested. "Forty-eight, for a single foe? You'd hardly so many Knights in one place for anything less than a pitched battle, of a kind my people haven't fought in centuries."

"We're not Knights," he reminded her. "There are some players—Swordmasters—who could do it with fewer, but not many. And that was when this was a game to us. Now, when our lives are really on the line? None of us are _that_ good yet."

"…Ah. Of course." It was too easy to forget, sometimes, just how ill-prepared the Swordmasters had been. Her companions came across as inexperienced, yes, but hardly complete novices. "Put that way, however, I'm more surprised. If the Guardian is expected to be so strong, one would expect few to be so brave."

"Not brave. Scared." When the two girls fixed him with questioning looks, Kirito looked down at the stone bench, frowning. "How do I put it… I'd expect people to be afraid of being left behind. In this world, victory in battle is all that matters. Miss out on a fight this big, and everyone will leave you behind."

It was Kizmel's turn to frown, wondering what nuance of the Swordmasters' newborn society she was missing. Asuna, though, slowly nodded. "…I think I get it," she said softly. "Like falling out of the top ten in class, or below the seventieth percentile on a test?"

He blinked. "Y-yeah. That's… not a bad comparison, really."

Kizmel cleared her throat. "And this means…?"

The two of them looked over at her—Kirito sheepish, Asuna with a shadowed look in her eyes her hood couldn't quite explain. "Where we come from," the fencer said slowly, "education is… well, pretty much everything. If you don't do well enough in school, you might never catch up. Your entire adult life rides on it."

There was a deeper, more personal story there, the elf was sure. But Kirito was nodding, and picked up where Asuna left off. "She's right. Here in Aincrad? With the stat system that governs Swordmaster strength, missing out on the experience and gear from even one boss fight might be crippling. We have to keep up, or the other players will leave us behind—and we might never be strong enough to keep fighting on the front line." He smiled, with little humor. "And you can bet it won't be long before that starts killing a Swordmaster's social life, too."

For a moment, she just turned that over in her mind. "I see." She'd known about the basic concept, she herself was bound to it in this world, after all, but she realized now she'd never properly appreciated the implications. In a real war, after all, the enemy did not adhere to a linear progression.

_Which means this is not a war as I know it,_ she realized. _Kirito may be inexperienced, but he may understand this world, and its battles, better than I._ She made a mental note to discuss the issue with him later, in much greater detail. And to point it out to Captain Emlas, as well.

_This is why my comrades died to the Forest Elf, while two novice humans were enough to save my life._

There was no time to ruminate on her realization just then, though. One more Swordmaster had arrived, walking confidently into the arena, and without breaking stride he leapt onto the lip of the fountain at the amphitheater's center. "Hello, everyone!" he called out, standing straight and tall, one hand resting on the hilt of the sword slung at his side. "Thank you all for coming!"

Tall, this one. Handsome—at least for a human. Shining blue armor, which Kizmel judged to be of about the highest quality to be found on Einsla. With that, his eye-catching blue hair—odd color for a Swordmaster, that—the shield on his back, and the Anneal Blade at his waist, the man was as close to the living ideal of a human knight as she could imagine.

_Perhaps some true knights were among the Swordmasters trapped here?_

"My name is Diavel," the man continued, smiling at the assembled crowd. "And I like to think my class is 'Knight'!"

She was surprised when Kirito snorted at the introduction; the more so when other Swordmasters outright laughed. "Aw, c'mon!" one of them called out. "_SAO_ doesn't even use a class system! Might as well just call yourself 'Hero', right?"

Kizmel didn't understand the derision, but in any case Diavel didn't seem bothered. "Fair enough—but I'm not so arrogant as to claim a title like _that_ when I haven't done anything yet! But," he added, raising a hand to his chest, "the time is coming that we might all be the heroes Aincrad needs. This morning, my party and I found the way to the final floor of the Skywall Tower!"

The hubbub _that_ provoked, she understood perfectly. Though they'd been busy with their own "sidequest", as Kirito had put it, she and her companions had done their fair share of scouting the Tower. They'd even reached the nineteenth floor, just below the top, but she'd had no idea anyone had explored so much of it. From all appearances, neither had anyone else.

Diavel raised his hand again, quieting the murmurers. It was a measure of his sheer presence that as fractious a group as the Swordmasters seemed to be obeying so readily. "The top floor is smaller than those below," he said. "Therefore, I expect we'll find the boss room early tomorrow. And with it, the key to lowering the first Skywall, and opening the sky itself."

The hush that followed, Kizmel also understood. Though she suspected she didn't grasp the full meaning it had to a people who came from a world without airships, she was just as trapped on Einsla as any of them.

"It's been a long month," Diavel said then, solemnly. "Over two thousand people have died, and only now are we reaching the first milestone in our quest to free ourselves. But!" He swung out his arm, gesturing sharply at the shimmering gold above and behind him, blocking off the sky. "That's because so few have come forward to fight. If we win this, my friends, we'll be an example to every player trapped on this island, in this world! We'll show everyone that it can be done, that we _can_ challenge this world and live! And with every Swordmaster we inspire, every one that joins the fight, we'll be that much stronger, that much quicker to clear the way to Bifrost, and home!"

That brought a cheer, and Kizmel herself wasn't unmoved by the self-proclaimed knight's words. Even so, there was a shadow of melancholy to her feelings—and she couldn't help but notice neither of her companions joined the cheering, either.

_To me, it's the understanding that the Swordmasters only seek freedom, not the aid Kayaba promised they'd bring my people. I wonder why Kirito and Asuna might have mixed feelings here?_

"Hold on just one second!"

The shout cut right through the cheers. All eyes, including Kizmel's, were suddenly on the source of it: the short, cactus-haired man she'd noticed earlier, who now jumped to his feet. Stalking into the amphitheater's center, he whirled to direct a glare at the assembled Swordmasters.

"Diavel-han's talkin' about 'inspiring' people. Well, y'know what 'inspiration' needs?" The man didn't wait for a reply. "Trust, that's what! An' I'd say there's at least five or ten of ya right here who can't be trusted one bit!"

That started the crowd muttering again, and left Kizmel blinking in confusion. A glance to her right, though, showed her Kirito wincing, hand twitching as if he wanted to cover his face. "I knew this would happen," he muttered, almost too low for even her to hear. "…It's not like he's all wrong…."

"Excuse me, good sir," Diavel broke in, still the picture of a knight. "By all means, let's hear out your grievance. But could you please first introduce yourself?"

"Hmph! Fair 'nough. The name's Kibaou." His voice was much rougher than Diavel's, and if Kizmel wasn't mistaken he wasn't even speaking quite the same dialect as other Swordmasters. Kibaou's indignation, however, came through perfectly clear. "Now, then! I've got the guts to say who I am, so how 'bout the rest of ya show some spine? Own up to who ya are! You know who I mean!"

He thrust out one arm then, jabbing a pointing finger at the gathered Swordmasters. _He cannot possibly mean elves, can he?_ Glancing around as unobtrusively as she could, Kizmel could only see two others wearing hoods at all like hers, and they were Asuna and—almost hidden behind a pillar—Argo. _There is also that masked man over there, but his ears are plainly visible._

Diavel cleared his throat. "By 'them', Kibaou-san, I assume you mean the beta testers?"

_Oh._ Flicking her gaze to her right, she saw Kirito's hands begin to clench. _The two thousand "players" who had advance knowledge of this world. …Why should Kibaou distrust them?_

"You're damn right!" Kibaou gave Diavel a jerky nod, before turning the full force of his glare back on the audience. Beginning to pace, he said, "The first day we were here, right after Kayaba's damn speech, the beta testers ran right outta town! They knew where to go to find money, gear, the best grindin' spots, an' they didn't share any of it with the rest of us!" He spun on his heel, stalking back the other way. "They coulda stayed in town, told _everybody_ where to find the good stuff, but no! They only cared 'bout themselves, an' by the time the rest of us started goin' out, they'd already taken the best of it!"

There was context Kizmel was sorely missing. She certainly understood the concept of limited hunting grounds, but the rest of it—the emphasis Swordmasters placed on "rare" equipment and "grinding" for experience—she was rapidly realizing was complex than it seemed.

Whatever the exact implications were, she could see Kibaou's words were striking a nerve with Kirito. Asuna's eyes were narrowing in indignation, but Kirito—

"We're s'posed ta set an example?" Kibaou returned to the center, planted his feet, and glared up at the Swordmasters. "Then start with trust! Start with payin' up! If you want me to even _think_ of trustin' ya in a fight, split your goods with the rest of us who're gonna be fightin' that boss!"

An outrageous demand. Kizmel didn't entirely understand Kibaou's complaint, nor why Kirito seemed to think there was merit to it, but she did understand one thing: the uncouth man's entire argument rested on the assumption that the "beta testers" had not been at risk themselves, and that everything they'd done had been for only their own benefit.

She couldn't speak to most "beta testers". As far as she knew, the only ones she'd met were Kirito and Argo. But she'd first met Kirito doing his best to help Asuna—a complete newcomer to Aincrad—survive and stand on her own. A first meeting that had also saved Kizmel herself, nearly at the cost of Kirito's own life.

_And my own sins are blacker than his by far,_ she thought, and gathered herself to stand. _I'll not see him so cruelly slandered—_

"Hold up just a minute there, bud."

Only when Kirito abruptly slumped back did Kizmel realize he'd been about to stand and say something himself. Instead, the two of them turned to look at the source of the new voice: the tall, dark axeman she'd noticed earlier. He was raising a hand for attention, and when Diavel nodded to him he stood.

"My name is Agil," he said, walking to stand opposite Kibaou. "For the record, I'm a newbie. Got my start with one of those classes the Fuurinkazan School's running in Origia. I didn't know anything more about this game than anybody else, when I started. So." He turned to Kibaou. "Let me make sure I got this right. You think the three thousand players who've died, died because the beta testers just ran out and took all the good stuff, instead of staying in Origia to train everybody up?"

Kizmel had to give Kibaou some measure of credit. Though he was clearly intimidated by Agil's sheer size, he quickly rallied, spine stiffening. "That's right!" he snapped. "I heard they got all the way to the Tenth Island during the beta! How many more players would still be alive if the betas told us everything they knew, huh?"

In a way, she had to admit that was a fair point. If the illusion those Swordmasters had gone through before Kayaba's true spell had been so accurate, the intelligence gained from it would doubtless have been invaluable. Information, she knew all too well, won more wars than force of arms.

From the murmurs among the other Swordmasters in the amphitheater, she wasn't the only one thinking of that. From the set of his jaw, Kirito was, as well. But Asuna only sat very still, watching. Kizmel wondered if the fencer had realized the same flaws in the argument that she had.

"Well, Kibaou, I'll admit you've got a reasonable point," Agil said, giving the shorter man a nod. "All things being equal, I might even say you're right to want reparations." That drew more murmurs, and a surprised look from Kibaou—one that quickly turned suspicious, even before the axeman continued. "Thing is, Kibaou, things are a whole lot messier than you think."

"And what's _that_ supposed to mean?!"

"Well, first? You ask me, the death rate's got nothing to do with knowing or not knowing. Speaking for myself, I didn't realize at first just what it meant that we _can_ die here. Tactics are a _lot_ different when you can't eat the death penalty and respawn." Agil shook his head, and even from where she was Kizmel could see a darkness in his eyes. "My bet is, people raced right out, thinking they just had to be a little more careful—and never thought it through, or bothered to learn _SAO_'s rules. Full-dive VR's _different,_ man, and _SAO_'s the biggest game it's got.

"And the word is, an awful lot of the betas who got stuck here with us are dead, too. Supposed to be around twelve hundred of them got the retail version, and supposedly at least five hundred of 'em aren't here anymore."

Kirito let out a breath, like he'd been punched. A quick glance his way showed Kizmel her comrade's face had gone pale, and though he was obviously trying to control himself, his shoulders were shivering. _Asuna wondered if he knew any of the dead. I would be surprised, now, if he did not._

As unobtrusively as she could, she rested her hand on his, and was glad to see Asuna subtly shift to bump his shoulder. It was perhaps too soon to say the three of them were friends, but they were at least comrades. Comrades saw to their own.

A hush had come over the amphitheater again, and even Kibaou seemed to have been brought up short. Then his face twisted in a scowl again, and he gestured dismissively. "Big words, if you're right. But how do ya know that, huh? Any _betas_ tell ya that to your face?"

"Head of the Fuurinkazan School did some digging," Agil told him, folding his arms. "Seems he got his start from a beta, and he wanted to know how they were doing. Do I know for sure it's true? No. But I believe it, for the same reason I don't blame the betas for not coming right out and spilling their guts."

"May I ask why you're so forgiving, Agil-san?" Diavel put in, rejoining the conversation. He looked as cool and calm as ever, but there was curiosity in his expression now. "Not that I disagree, by any means, but before I give my reasons I'd like to hear yours in full."

"Why I stood up, Sir Knight." Agil reached into a belt pouch, and pulled out a small, hardbound book. "This here? It's a strategy guide, sold for zero Cor at a shop in town. In _every_ town, I've found one of these waiting. Basic info on local quests and monsters, already there when players arrive. For free."

"Free?" Kizmel heard Kirito mutter. "You made _me_ pay full price, Rat…."

"I've seen those, too," Kibaou said, rolling his eyes. "So?"

"So, who do you think wrote these little books, Kibaou?" Agil shook his head again. "That fast? The author had to have it from the betas. Which gets you wondering, why give it to us in bite-size chunks, not all at once? My bet is, 'cause not everything in the retail version matches the beta test. That's how it is in gaming. So people are out there checking every little detail, make sure it checks out." He paused. "And anybody who _didn't,_ probably isn't here to warn us."

Kizmel nodded, under the cover of her hood. It was a treasure beyond gold to know the paths and the enemy—and a trap deadlier than any sword to blindly trust that information, when some of it was wrong.

_Though my life was saved by exactly that,_ she thought, blackly amused by the irony.

Whether Kibaou had any answer to that, she didn't know. Diavel chose that moment to clap his hands, bringing attention back to him. "Well said, Agil-san!" he said loudly. "Yes, better to be sure, than to walk into what we think is a snake's den only to find a dragon. I did that once myself," he added, smiling ruefully. "Though the information was just from an NPC, and really, it was only a _small_ dragon…."

_He's still lucky to be alive. Even small dragons are vicious when their hoards are trespassed…. Hm?_ Kizmel frowned, a strange feeling tickling the edge of her sixth sense. _What is that…?_

"That being said, the information is indeed available, my friends," Diavel went on. "And indeed, through the efforts of the beta testers, my party has made strides we never could have otherwise."

The feeling intensified. It was almost familiar, yet—not. She'd felt something akin to it before, but this sense had a peculiar flavor of its own. _To be sure, most true magic was gone long before my time, but this—I ought to know this, yet I don't. And what I do recognize—surely it can't be?_

There was a humming in the air then, growing stronger. First low enough that only Kizmel's ears could hear it, but soon even the Swordmasters were glancing around, wondering what it was.

"My friends," Diavel said, raising his voice over the sound, "our first task is to defeat the first Barrier Guardian, and bring down the first Skywall. Then we will be free to sail the skies—and _this,_ my friends, is my promise that we'll reach that sky!"

The hum intensified, right along with the sense of strange magic brushing Kizmel's skin—and from the west, above the amphitheater, a hull suddenly leapt into view: the long, lean hull of an airship, keel clad in steel and two great engines mounted on her flanks. Rows of gunports lined those flanks, and as she swung around to port, a young man could seen standing on the deck, waving a sword.

"This, my friends, is the symbol of our coming victory!" Diavel called out. "When the Skywall falls, _Liberator_ shall lead the way!"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

* * *

Yeah… I'm not going to try to make excuses for how late this chapter is. Except for one genuinely unusual factor: this required more rewrites than any chapter I have _ever_ written before. Getting this just the way I wanted it was much harder than usual. (And I'm still not quite comfortable with the four-thousand-word argument at the end of it.)

So. Rewrites of this extent are unlikely to be a recurring factor. Also the next chapter of _Monochrome Duet_ is closing in on finished, so there won't be quite as much of a delay before the next chapter of _Rebellion_ begins. Which, unlike this chapter, is also planned out almost scene-for-scene, with the only real question being if I can fit all of it into a single chapter.

Chapter IV I can promise will be rather more active than this one. Just for the most obvious, it's going to be covering the Illfang battle; on top of that, at least one more major plot will be kicking off. No spoilers, but I will say the aftermath is _not_ going to be a carbon-copy of anime Episode 2/_Aria in the Starless Night._

So. Standard Boilerplate Excuses/Vague Promises out of the way, a couple of specific things to note. One bit of trivia is that the airship name "_Liberator_" is taken from the web novel version of _Progressive_ Volume 3_,_ where it was the name of the boat the published version labeled "_Unleash_". The latter I personally consider a dumb name for a ship, but it left the former free to be used as a neat in-joke.

As readers of _Duet_ may recall, my Sindarin is sketchy to put it charitably. If anyone more knowledgeable than I has a correction for the bit used in the first scene, I'm all ears.

Side note: sooner or later, you'll probably be seeing some edits to the names/terminology used for the islands of Aincrad. The system I'm currently using is based on adapting numbers into place names—and only makes any sense if you happen to be able to count in multiple languages. And can figure out which, exactly, is being used, something which is likely to get worse when it gets to the double-digits. Since I don't think even _I_ will be able to keep it straight for long… I think I need a better system. I will be brainstorming about that.

Hm. I think that about covers things here. Let me know how good/bad wading this mostly-world-building chapter was, and I hope you'll stick with me to see the more action-packed next chapter. Stay healthy, comrades, and Happy Easter. _-Solid_


	4. Chapter IV: Remember That Name

**Chapter IV: "Remember That Name"**

* * *

December 2nd, 2032

* * *

In the streets of Tolbana, player morale was probably the highest it had yet been since Kayaba's announcement. Between the word that the first boss would soon be found, and Diavel's surprise reveal of a tangible sign of hope, the players with the courage to leave Origia were feeling optimistic.

Kirito doubted they were outright throwing parties over it. That might just be coming soon, if and when the first Barrier Guardian really was taken down, but for the time being it was more a buzz of conversations and a taut air of anticipation.

None of that reached his small team. Even had sound carried through closed windows, their rented farmhouse was too far away from the center of town—and inside, as he looked out the west window at the night sky, there was a different kind of tension in the air.

"All right," Asuna said, setting her glass of milk on the table. "Talk to me. Something's bothering both of you about that airship Diavel brought in. I can kind of guess what Kirito-kun's thinking, but what about you, Kizmel?"

Sitting on the couch across from the fencer, hands folded in her lap, Kizmel frowned pensively. "I doubt either of you could feel it," she began, "but there is something… off, about _Liberator_. You both know I'm no airship engineer, yet I've traveled enough in my time to know core crystals." The elf girl shook her head. "It is not Wood, nor the Iron favored by humans. It is not even the twisted darkness of—an enemy whose very name I cannot speak here."

Well. That wasn't ominous _at all._ Kirito had a pretty good idea who she was talking about with that last, and normally he would've been relieved to know they weren't involved so early. _But if she's implying it's somehow even worse than that…._

"Truthfully, I have no idea what alignment that ship's core holds," Kizmel continued. "I don't believe I've ever encountered such magic at all. I can tell that it _is_ a core crystal, but nothing more." She looked to Kirito. "You know more of human ships and magicks than I. Do you know of an element other than Iron used in your people's ships?"

He shook his head, still looking out at Aincrad's alien constellations. "Airship mechanics weren't really something I worried about much in the beta," he admitted. "The crystals you just listed are the only ones I ever heard about, though. The Axiom Church might have something different, but they usually prefer dragons over ships. More to the point—"

"There weren't airships available this early, during the beta," Asuna finished. "Am I right?" When he finally turned and gave a silent nod, she sighed. "So, just like what we've run into, this is something Kayaba changed. Only this isn't anything to do with the elves at all, so you don't even have a rough idea."

"Pretty much."

That spooked Kirito more than he really wanted to admit. Everything to do with Kizmel and the airship _Moonshadow_ had been completely off the rails compared to his beta experience, but at least it was a _familiar_ off the rails. As different as the events were proceeding, the lore was so far about what he knew from the beta test. Just as, so far, everything else on Einsla was more or less as he'd expected it to be.

"We do know one thing, however," Kizmel looked down at the table, clearly not happy with her own insight. "Sir Diavel is lying about having found his airship via the beta testers' information."

Yeah. That was gnawing at him, too. Even if he couldn't help feeling warm that the two of them were taking his word for it all. _Although…. _"Technically, Diavel just said they helped," he pointed out, leaving the window in favor of the chair next to Asuna's. "Which could just mean some testers were involved in finding it, not that they gave him inside information. And even if he was lying? He might have been trying to head off Kibaou's witch hunt."

If he was, Kirito couldn't help but be grateful. He felt hideously guilty, but grateful.

"It's still lying," Asuna said. She picked up her milk again, took a long sip, and grimaced. "Sooner or later, if the truth comes out, that could backfire. Badly."

"I know." He brought up his menu, materialized a chunk of bread and a jar of cream, and set to work making his abbreviated dinner. "If we're lucky, though, it won't come out until we're farther along in the Archipelago, when any beta info doesn't matter anymore anyway."

There was a good chance of that, he figured. After the Tenth Island, _nobody_ knew what was out there. Not even him.

"If we are lucky," Kizmel said dubiously. She paused to put together her own meal, and dug in with obvious satisfaction. She hadn't liked _Moonshadow_'s rations any more than the two players had. "Which still, unfortunately, leaves _us_ with the question of where and how he obtained the ship. And, of course, the other issues clearly bothering you, Kirito."

_Damn. I hoped they hadn't noticed that._ The Royal Guard's pointed look, and Asuna's near-glare, told him he hadn't been that lucky. Affecting a casual shrug, he took a bite of creamy bread and said, "I'm just wondering about his hair, that's all."

If looks were Sword Skills, Asuna's Linear gaze would've been a critical hit. "His hair," she repeated flatly.

"Basic hair for players is what we have IRL," Kirito reminded her around another bite. "We can change style via the default menu settings, but color? That takes dye potions. NPCs don't sell those until at least the next island, and no _way_ does anybody have Alchemy that high yet. So, quest reward or monster drop—and the only ones I know about on Einsla are about the highest-level quests here. Not the kind of thing you'd go for casually, this early."

"Hm." Kizmel gave a thoughtful nod. "That, then, might simple be 'beta information'." Then she fixed him with another pointed stare. "And the other problem?"

He sighed. "…It might just be my imagination. But… I think he knows me. Somehow."

* * *

December 3rd, 2032

* * *

Asuna hadn't even known Tolbana _had_ an aerodrome. Not until self-proclaimed "knight" Diavel had announced the next meeting would be there, the afternoon after his announcement that the boss room would soon be found. Now, she found herself accompanying Kirito and Kizmel onto the flat, paved expanse on the town's western edge, waiting to hear the news Diavel brought.

It wasn't as big as Origia's aerodrome, nor were there as many airships. Those it did have were mostly smaller vessels, covered over by protective tarps; most of them seemingly abandoned, though a few did have NPC mechanics checking on them. One thing it did have in common with Origia was the sense of waiting, the airships still kept grounded by the Skywall.

There was one ship that stood apart from others, though. Nestled in a landing cradle, the steel-clad hull of Diavel's _Liberator_ was shiny and pristine, ready to take off at a moment's notice. At thirty meters long, about the length of _Moonshadow,_ Kirito had identified the ship as a "light cruiser" by the game's classification. With ten cannons on either side, Asuna had to wonder what counted as "heavy".

_Someday, I'm sure I'll find out. For now, I'm just as happy with something smaller._

A platform had been set up beside the ship's starboard flank. The Swordmasters who'd attended the previous meeting were already gathering around it when her small party showed up, taking places on benches that had been brought in. Standing on the platform was the blue-haired knight himself, along with a young player Asuna didn't recognize.

When everyone who'd come before had found seats, Diavel clapped once for attention. "Thank you for coming, everyone!" he called out, smiling. "Very good to see everyone from yesterday is back…. Ahem! Before I begin, I'd like to introduce you all to _Liberator_'s commander, Captain Coper!"

That drew a round of applause, which Asuna found herself joining. There were a lot of questions about exactly how Diavel had acquired an airship in the first place, but it was true that _Liberator_ was a symbol of what they could do. _Besides,_ she thought, watching the brown-haired youth make an awkward motion as if adjusting invisible glasses, _the poor guy probably needs the vote of confidence. First airship captain and all that._

Though given the Anneal Blade he was wearing at his waist, he probably wasn't exactly a newbie in general….

"Thank you," Coper said, giving a bow and a sheepish smile. "Diavel-san's the one who'll be doing the leading on the ground, but I'll do my best in the air, when the time comes."

"Which will be this time tomorrow!" Diavel proclaimed, clapping Coper on the shoulder. "The Skywalls come down when the Guardian assigned to one is defeated, and an airship makes contact with the weakened Wall. And it so happens, my friends, that my party located the boss room this morning!"

That didn't provoke quite the stir reaching the top floor had. They'd all expected it, after all, to the point that Asuna and her comrades had chosen to spend the morning preparing rather than redundant exploring. _But it's still big news. It's about time, huh?_

"I realize there's still hard feelings to be sorted out here," Diavel continued, nodding at a particular cactus-haired player in the crowd. "For right now, though, I can tell you that the information provided by the beta testers is correct: we now know the nature of the first Barrier Guardian."

"Illfang," Kirito muttered to her left, his first words since they'd reached the aerodrome. "Big wolfman, single attack pattern change, pretty simple adds…."

Gah. More jargon they hadn't covered yet. Asuna made a mental note to corner him about boss info as soon as the meeting was over.

Diavel was materializing a small book from his inventory, and he held it up for the crowd to see. The cover read _Argo's First Guardian Strategy Guide—_with, she noticed, a disclaimer written below: _Warning: Information is based on the beta test, and may not be consistent with __the __retail version._

"Illfang the Kobold Lord," Diavel said, opening the book. "If you've been in the Skywall Tower, you'll have fought lesser kobolds. Illfang is a big one, carrying a bone axe and a shield. He's accompanied by a set of Ruin Kobold Sentinels, with more spawning at set intervals. When he's down to his final lifebar, he replaces the ax and shield with a tulwar." He tapped the page. "Timing for the respawns is included here, along with descriptions of Illfang's Sword Skills. If we pay attention, we can—no, we _will _get through this with no casualties!"

On Kirito's opposite side, still disguised by her Mistmoon Cloak's hood, Kizmel softly cleared her throat. "I hesitate to ask this," she murmured, "but in your 'beta test', did you succeed without losses?"

Kirito gave a short shake of his head. "We got total raid wipes twice," he admitted quietly. "Even the successful run had a few deaths. But," he added, when Asuna turned to him in alarm, "we didn't have the benefit of a strategy guide. And I'm willing to bet the average level is higher than in the beta—I know we're higher than I was then. Diavel's right, if we're careful, we might just pull this off."

"Might." Asuna took a deep, shuddering breath, and forced herself to nod. "We will, then." _We have to._

"I suggest we begin the raid at 10:00 tomorrow," Diavel said, when everyone had had a chance to digest his comments about the boss. "That'll give us time to navigate the Tower, fight the boss, and reach the Second Island by the afternoon. For tonight? Everyone form up into parties, get to know each other, and gear up. Tomorrow, we claim our first victory!" He rapped a gauntleted fist on his chestplate. "And when we do, we'll celebrate on _Liberator_'s deck, as we cross the first Skywall together!"

That brought a cheer and another round of applause. When it died down, players immediately started splitting off into smaller groups, party invitations going back and forth. Asuna noticed the girl with the Anneal Blade from the day before chattering enthusiastically with a bemused Agil, while the masked man stood more quietly to one side.

_That's one party I wouldn't have expected. But then, who am I to talk?_

"That's our cue to go," Kirito said under his breath, pushing away from the bench. "I don't know about you two, but I'd rather stick with our half-size party than invite people we haven't practiced with."

"Good plan," Asuna agreed, following him away from the crowd. "I know we'll have to deal more with other players eventually, but… not yet."

"You'll hear no objection from me," Kizmel said, casting a narrow glance back toward the other players. "Humans, I believe, are going to be something of an acquired taste." She turned a quick smile on Asuna. "Present company excluded, of course."

They slipped into the shadow of one of the grounded airships, and out of sight—yet Asuna had the oddest feeling of being glared at, just before the three of them cleared the aerodrome completely.

* * *

December 4th, 2032

* * *

Kizmel found herself surprisingly tense, traveling with a group of forty-three Swordmasters. Though not one of them gave her a second glance, as they made their way through the forest outside Tolbana toward the nearby tunnel system, the knowledge that only the Mistmoon Cloak's protection stood between her and exposure was… unsettling. Something as simple as a strong wind might reveal her for what she was.

_I know better than to think humans the root of all Aincrad's evil,_ she thought, keeping close to her two young allies. _Nonetheless, these are humans who have been betrayed. They're as apt to mistrust me as Captain Emlas does them, and with at least as good reason._

More, really. She tried not to think about that too hard.

Instead, Kizmel focused determinedly on how the Swordmasters around her moved, knowing she'd need to know when the battle began. Most of them crashed through the brush as noisily as angry boars. Some, like Diavel and Asuna, managed something approaching subtlety, while Kirito was almost as quiet as her. The energetic girl with the Anneal Blade was somewhere in between—and the masked man was like a ghost, so close to silent she thought hers were the only ears to catch even a whisper of his steps.

_As if I needed more proof the Swordmasters were not hand-picked warriors._ Glancing again at Diavel, leading the way into the tunnels to the Skywall Tower, she leaned closer still to her comrades. "I've been meaning to ask," she murmured. "Why were the other Swordmasters so amused by Sir Diavel's claim of knighthood? I realize few of you are trained fighters, but still…."

Kirito shrugged. "Mostly? It's just kind of silly to say something like that in a game that doesn't have a class system. Er," he added, when she gave him a blank look, "how do I explain that…. Well, you know how Swordmasters' abilities are based on numerical statistics?"

She nodded. It was not as if her own strength was any different, in this world. Difficult as it was to get used to.

"Okay, then. In some games, you pick 'classes', which bias your stats toward defined roles. Strength for warriors, Agility for thieves and assassins, that kind of thing. Here?" He gestured at his sword and wrist-grapnel, then to the variety of weapons carried by other Swordmasters. "What you equip, and how you allocate bonus points on level-up, is what defines what you can do."

"…I see. I think." Though Kizmel thought it was sad, for a role as honorable as knighthood to be broken down into mere numbers.

"Class systems also define story roles, in some games," Kirito was continuing. "_Sword Art Online_ was supposed to be more about players choosing for themselves exactly how to tackle the Skywalls and the Axiom Church, with nobody having any specific role in the plot. …I guess Diavel _could_ be considered a knight, though, if you think about it that way."

"Hm."

Conversation lapsed as the raid group proceeded through the tunnels, and the first monsters they'd encountered since leaving Tolbana appeared. Those in the forests, Kizmel surmised, had fled from such a large group. The Kobold Guards were apparently made of sterner stuff.

Stern enough to fight, but not to stand up to such a force. Diavel led the raid capably, both with strategy and with blade, proving his worth as leader. Of the other Swordmasters, though she was particularly impressed with her own companions, the masked man, and the enthusiastic girl, Kizmel was pleased to see even the least knew what they were about.

She knew little, so far, of the Barrier Guardians, or how they would be fought in this world. If any group could defeat them, however, she was sure it was this one.

Only an hour after setting out from Tolbana, the raid group emerged from the tunnels at the base of the Skywall Tower. Standing at the very edge of Einsla, the stone edifice reached one hundred meters into the sky, topped by a platform walled in by the same charmed glass the elves used in their airships.

Up there, Kizmel knew, was Illfang. The first obstacle between her and continuing her mission—between her, and her sister.

As Diavel raised his sword in salute, exhorting the raid group to follow him into that tower, Kizmel watched him closely. "Do you suppose," she murmured to her companions, "that Sir Diavel might _be_ a knight, in your world?"

Kirito only shook his head. "Kinda doubt that."

Asuna huffed, clearly exasperated. "She doesn't know, Kirito-kun," she said, rapping her knuckles on his shoulder. "We don't _have_ knights in our world, Kizmel," she continued, turning to the elf. "The kind of knight Diavel's role-playing hasn't existed in centuries, and never in our homeland. The closest thing we had—the samurai—are more recent, but, well… let's say they didn't really live up to that kind of ideal." She sighed, shaking her head. "Well, I suppose few knights ever did…."

Kizmel vowed to ask for more details, when there was time. Because that was, quite simply, a travesty. _Not that Lyusula's orders are without those who fall short, but at least as a whole we may claim to uphold honor. If Asuna has never known true knighthood, I will have to show her that chivalry still lives with _us.

Following Diavel and the rest of the raid into the Skywall Tower, she only hoped that the self-proclaimed knight would stand as an example himself. She wanted to believe that some of the Swordmasters, at least, might be the people whose aid her kingdom had been promised.

* * *

At least the Skywall Tower was pretty much as Kirito remembered it from the beta. Twenty floors high, with fairly straightforward stone corridors and no traps to speak of. The admittedly plentiful mobs, mostly variations of Kobold, were about the only real complication the dungeon had.

A warm-up, all in all. What was just about the right level of challenge to keep solos or small parties on their toes was nothing for a group of forty-three players and one Dark Elf to worry about. It had taken his little team about an hour to safely climb to the nineteenth floor. The raid group managed it in half that.

_Later towers won't be this easy. But right now, I won't complain about an easy start._

Before long, they stood in the corridor that ended in the stairway to the top floor. There, Diavel climbed halfway up, turned to face the raid group, and drew his sword. "Here we are," he said, raising the Anneal Blade toward the ceiling. "Just beyond this door is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Keep together and remember your roles, and we'll all make it through this."

Which, for Kirito, Asuna, and Kizmel meant staying back and handling the adds. Though Asuna had bristled at the job, when Diavel had laid out the plan, and even Kizmel had seemed to think it an affront, Kirito understood the logic. They were a team of just three, barely enough for proper Switching tactics. Trying to stand at the front would've been sheer recklessness.

So he joined in with the cheer along with the rest of the raid, when Diavel swung around to face the doors at the top of the stairs. Keeping the adds away from the forwards was just as important, and in the death trap _SAO_ had become, survival trumped ego.

The doors swung open with a ponderous groan, the sound one expected from a boss door, and Diavel led the raid up onto the final floor.

As the smallest party, Team H, Kirito's group was at the very back—so he was surprised when Kibaou dropped back, almost matching pace with him. "Hey," the cactus-haired player muttered, looking at him with a narrow gaze. "Don't forget yer place, got it? Y'all have gotten the good stuff so far, but you're playin' second fiddle here. Be happy with the scraps, an' don't even think 'bout stealing the LA."

_What?_

Kibaou didn't wait for any kind of response, only clicking his teeth and speeding up to rejoin his own team. Kirito was left staring in confusion. _Okay, seriously, what? I mean, sure, I probably got the Last Attack bonus more than most in the beta, but how would he even know—?_

_Argo said someone was looking for me. And __if I know Argo, whatever she sold him didn't come cheap._ Except Kibaou's gear looked pretty standard for a new player, nothing suggesting he had the kind of Cor to throw at the Rat's prices. _Which means either he blew all his savings trying to find out about me, for some weird reason… or he was only the middleman._

_Who was Kibaou working for? And why?_

"Is something amiss, Kirito?"

Kirito shook himself. This was no time to be worrying about mysterious plots. It wasn't like he hadn't been intending to do exactly what Kibaou had demanded anyway. "It's nothing," he said, deliberately ignoring both Kizmel's skeptical look and Asuna's mild glare. "C'mon, let's go."

Last of the raid group, they climbed the stairs to final floor, and stepped out onto the top of the Skywall Tower.

* * *

Asuna had seen screenshots of the first Skywall Tower, before she even got her NerveGear. She'd thought even from those that the boss room at its top, walled in by not-quite-glass, looked impressive, with its clear view of the golden hexagons of the Skywall itself. In person, it was breathtaking.

Just a flat stone floor, with a few platforms rising a couple meters above, and at the far end what looked like the back of a grand throne. No ornamentation to speak of, except some vague patterns in the floor—but the level of detail in the stone textures, and the amazing view out the walls and ceiling, made it something more than the sum of its parts.

She could hear other players expressing appreciation for it, even under the circumstances. Beside her, she heard Kizmel mutter, "The Axiom Church has artisans of such skill, and yet they waste them on this monument to the Administrator's arrogance…."

There was no time to ponder the still-surprising genuineness of the elf girl's disgust. Diavel was raising his sword, silently motioning the raid to halt—and behind them, the doors swung closed with a deep _boom._

_Don't panic, Kirito-kun said they'll still open just fine if we need to make a run for it—oh, wow…._

The intricate patterns on the floor blazed into bright light, a kaleidoscope of colors tracing abstract curves and sharp turns. Bright blue flares on the platforms heralded the appearance of Ruin Kobold Sentinels, and at the far end of the chamber, the throne turned to face the raid. Two bright red lights—eyes, Asuna realized—appeared, and with a roar, the creature in the throne leapt halfway across the room.

Three meters tall, it was. Covered in reddish fur and light armor, with a wolf-like muzzle, it carried a bone axe in one hand and a shield in the other, just as the pre-boss meeting had said. Even as Asuna watched, four HP bars appeared over its head.

At another roar, the Sentinels leapt down from their perches, and **[Illfang the Kobold Lord]** brandished its axe directly at the raid.

At the front of the raid group, Diavel watched the Sentinels come, and swung his sword down to point straight ahead. "Team G, take the vanguard! Team H, take any Sentinels that get through! B, D, F, wait for the signal to switch in! A, C, E—_charge!"_

Team G, with Agil, the masked swordsman, and the girl with the Anneal Blade, was the first to make contact. Three Sentinels went straight for them; Agil's long-handled axe and the two-handed sword of another member stopped one short, but the other two got in close, swinging heavy, rock-headed maces in the bright arcs of Sword Skills.

The masked man—whose robe Asuna belated realized bore Shinsengumi colors—sidestepped with casual ease, letting the rock-mace whistle past. Before the Sentinel could recover from the post-motion, his katana blurred free of its scabbard in a quick slash, cutting a red wireframe gash across its flank. As it stumbled, he pulled the blade back, parallel to the floor, and drove a thrust into the kobold's back.

_No Sword Skills,_ Asuna thought, eyes wide. _He's good._

The girl wasn't quite as good, or as lucky. Though she took a quick step to one side, the other Sentinel's mace got in a glancing blow to her side, almost knocking her off her feet. To Asuna's surprise, the girl's response was a grin—and in the instant she regained her footing, a vicious Slant. Grin widening, she pressed the attack with a basic thrust, uncaring that it pushed the Sentinel toward the knot where her teammates were engaging the first.

Asuna was distracted from the sight by a louder clash, and her head whipped around to watch Team A meet Illfang itself. It had started the fight with a brutal overhand Sword Skill of some kind; the mixed team of swordsmen and lancers scattered around it, and unleashed a flurry of skills. She didn't know enough about the weapons involved to pin down exactly what they were doing, but the thrusts and spins, lit by red and blue flashes, certainly _looked_ impressive.

The combined assault even made Illfang stagger back, roaring in apparent pain. She felt a surge of hope at the sight—only for reality to chase it back down, noticing the first of the Kobold Lord's HP bars had barely flinched under the barrage. Then it was recovering its poise, and with a deeper snarl it rammed its shield forward, sending one of Team A's swordsmen tumbling back. Its right arm swung back, then forward again in a broad sweep with its axe, catching three other players.

The cries as they were hurled back made Asuna's heart jump into her throat. Her feet started to move—to try and help or to run, she wasn't sure—but then a hand landed on her shoulder. "They'll be fine," Kirito said into her ear, low and calm. "Those weren't bad hits, and Team C is already going in. Right now, it's our turn!"

Taking only a second to confirm the next group of forwards really was charging in to stop Illfang from following up, Asuna spun to follow Kirito's warning. Two Ruin Kobold Sentinels had gotten past Team G, heading right for the reserve teams.

_Okay. Let's do this!_

Kizmel was already in motion, rushing to block the first Sentinel. Her shield crashed into it from the side, and her saber licked out to trace a deep crimson line in its helmet. It fell back with a squeal, and its companion turned to see what was going on. Red flared in the eyeholes of its helmet, catching sight of Asuna charging in, and its rock-mace whirled up and around to intercept.

She saw it coming, and was already starting to dodge when Kirito shouted a wordless warning. It probably would've hit her anyway, except at that moment his grapnel zipped past, wrapped around the mace's shaft, and _yanked._

Asuna wasted no time taking advantage of how the move pulled the Sentinel forward and off-balance. With a shout of her own, she drove the fastest Linear she could right into its gut. Between the thrust and the pull from the grapnel, her rapier punched through and clear out its back, taking out around twenty percent of its HP with just the one blow.

It also left her suddenly stuck. For an instant, she was left with the decision of trying to pull her blade free—leaving her vulnerable for precious seconds—or abandoning it, leaving her completely defenseless. _I _so_ have to look into a sub-weapon—!_

Kirito's Anneal Blade flashed over her head in a Horizontal, catching the Sentinel in the throat even as his grapnel snapped free from its mace. He followed up with a knee to the kobold's gut, forcing it off her rapier. "Nice one!" he said, flashing a grin. "I got this one, give Kizmel a hand!"

Asuna felt a flash of pride, quickly stifled—she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction—and spun on her heel to dash toward the other Sentinel. Kizmel's saber was clashing against the handle of its mace, the two of them stuck in a deadlock. But it was a deadlock that had put the elf between the mob and the reserve force, more or less in line with their job.

"Kizmel, Switch!"

The NPC pulled back in a flash, spinning away to the left. The sudden loss of resistance left the Sentinel stumbling forward, in a perfect position for the Linear Asuna was already charging up. _I can do this!_

The Sentinel caught itself, and in the moment before the fencer's glowing blade could connect, its mace flashed and whirled, catching her in the side. She still connected, but it was a glancing blow that only scratched a few centimeters deep across its chest armor. Asuna, by contrast, lost about five percent of her HP and was left tumbling and rolling across the floor.

On the bright side, she had time to see Illfang had lost around ten percent off its first lifebar. Team C was retreating, but E was already tearing into the Kobold Lord.

"Team B, D, F, you're up next!" Diavel called out, pointing from one to another with his sword. "Keep it up, everyone, you're doing fine!"

They were, Asuna realized, rolling back to her feet. The Shinsengumi had just calmly beheaded one of the Sentinels, the grinning girl was gutting another with an unnerving laugh, and Agil and the others in his team had smashed the third to the floor. Another set of Sentinels were heading their way, but the first batch would be dead in plenty of time for them to switch targets.

Closer in, Kirito had tangled his target's legs with his grapnel, and was just then slashing another Horizontal across its neck. Though somewhere along the way he'd lost about five percent HP himself, his foe wasn't going to last much longer.

_We can do this,_ Asuna thought, readying her rapier. _I can do this! We're going to beat this thing!_

Kizmel had just whacked her Sentinel in the snout with her shield. As it reared back, shaking its head, she unleashed a vicious slash across its stomach—and even as it pulled back its rock-mace to retaliate, Asuna launched herself into motion. Yelling a wordless battle cry, she drove a shining Linear right at its throat.

* * *

With two of Illfang's "lifebars" down, the raid group had settled into an efficient rhythm. Teams A, C, and E were gathered in a semi-circle in front of the Kobold Lord, hammering it with every Sword Skill they could muster. The Barrier Guardian was fighting back furiously, roaring and swinging its axe with abandon, but with so many foes, it could not possibly repel them all.

Here and there, two or even three Swordmasters were knocked away, spraying crimson that wasn't quite like blood. Even as one lone Knight watched, Illfang smashed its axe into the stone floor with such force that half of Team C was thrown away—yet even there, members of the teams currently standing back to recover were quick to help them to their feet. "HP" falling but not yet dangerously so, they charged right back into the fight.

Team G remained focused on the Sentinels, keeping most of them away from the main fighting with admirable skill. Agil's axe whirled with a proficiency that seemed to increase even as the battle continued, aided by two of the others; a kobold squealed as it fell to the cold floor, axe embedded in its skull. With an all-too-lifelike twitch, it shattered into the still-unnerving blue shards that was death in _Sword Art Online._

The masked swordsman spun around another, evading its rock-mace with the casual economy of a master. His katana came up in a backhand blow just as practiced, cutting through the Sentinel's spine. A quick twist of his wrist, the blade flashed in a flat forehand strike, and its head sailed free, shattering several meters away.

Team G's lone girl had, if anything, grown ever more excited as the battle progressed. She'd taken more injury than anyone not facing Illfang, to the point of having once had to retreat to down a healing potion, yet her enthusiasm was undiminished. Skipping back as if it were all a game, she braced herself, swung her Anneal Blade up behind her shoulder, and launched herself forward in a flashing Sonic Leap. Laughing all the while, her sword came down on a Sentinel's shoulder with enough force to drive the kobold from its feet. Riding it down, she reversed her grip, viciously stabbing the Sentinel in the chest.

Kirito, perhaps the youngest Swordmaster present, battled one of the Sentinels that had slipped past Team G with a style and flair all his own. Light on his feet, wearing no armor heavier than a leather jacket, and carrying no shield, he relied on pure agility to keep him safe. His Anneal Blade carved a Slant from the Sentinel's left shoulder down to its right hip; when it tried to retaliate with a brutal mace strike to his flank while the skill's recoil stilled his sword, he launched his grapnel at its right leg.

It stumbled, shrieking—and into the gap, Asuna charged. "Number Three!" she called out, her rapier flashing in a Linear almost too fast to see. Wreathed in crimson light, its tip struck the staggering kobold's chest, knocking it completely off-balance.

Kizmel struck then, her saber slashing a Reaver from left to right, the Sentinel's own momentum carrying it deeper into the blow. It howled, a sound like and yet unlike what she might've expected—too similar to the death cries of its brethren, she thought, to seem real—and broke apart before it ever struck the floor.

"Good work, G, H!" Diavel called out, somehow sparing a moment from directing the assault on Illfang to nod in their direction. "That's all the Sentinels for now—pull back and recover, so you're ready for the next wave!"

Only then, with a start, did Kizmel realize she and her companions had all taken injury enough to be in the "yellow". Though they were still safely above the red, she quibbled not at all before trotting back to the edge of the battlefield. Indeed, only the laughing girl seemed at all bothered, incongruously pouting before following her teammates back.

_So this is battle, to the Swordmasters,_ Kizmel thought, watching one of the forward teams switch with a reserve while she drank a healing potion. _Like and yet unlike fighting as I know it. The threat of true death may be new to the Swordmasters, but they clearly understand the rules that govern this world far better than I._

A sobering thought, on many levels. Between this and the battle her party of Pagoda Knights had fought against the Forest Elf expedition a month before, she was quite sure her own people would've suffered heavy casualties by this point. If nothing else, gauging injury by strange symbols in the air instead of blood and pain would've led them to fatally miscalculate their wounds.

_On the other hand, in the battles I know, fighting for so long wouldn't be possible at all. On a normal battlefield, one cannot so easily gauge the moment an injury is lethal, and fight until that moment is reached. In a "real" battle, these tactics would be suicidal._

Watching Illfang suddenly break away from the teams fighting it, jumping back to gain distance, it was hard not to dwell on that. Even as Diavel directed the Swordmasters under his command to charge after the Kobold Lord, denying it the breathing space it needed to unleash a more powerful attack, she could see the dichotomy all too clearly.

_On this battlefield, the Swordmasters dominate. As powerful as Illfang is, numbers and tactics will bring it down. Sir Diavel knows those tactics well enough to be the general they need._

Illfang had been trying to gain enough space for a broad, sweeping slash that might've caught the entire group attacking it. Diavel's quick thinking kept most of them inside its reach instead, and the brutal slash knocked only a third of them over and away—a crushing blow according to the rules Kizmel knew, but a survivable one here. Diavel was already barking out orders to send in one of the reserve teams, and in a moment Kibaou was leading the charge to pull out the wounded, while the other Swordmasters still on their feet stabbed and slashed Illfang to buy time.

_In a world not governed by numbers and strange magic, Sir Diavel would have already lost. Even my people, strong and skilled as they are, could hardly shrug off the wounds the Swordmasters treat as inevitable._

Glancing at a nervous but increasingly confident Asuna, and a tense yet calm Kirito, Kizmel forced herself to relax. _Enough. The rules of a flesh and blood battle will only ever matter to any of us if and when the Swordmasters break through to Centoria Cathedral, and defeat Quinella. If I cannot remember that, I'll be the one to die here._

Bright flares of azure light caught her eye, just as her HP rose back to blue. "Get ready, G, H!" Diavel shouted, gesturing toward them with his own Anneal Blade. "More Sentinels incoming—last set before the final lifebar! Keep them off us!"

Team G's girl was the first in motion, leaving her team to catch up. As they followed, Kizmel exchanged rueful looks with her own companions. "What are the chances we have more work, despite her enthusiasm?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"After the fighting we've had so far?" Kirito shook his head, tossing away an empty potion bottle. "Well, at least we're getting the pattern down."

"They'd better be grateful," Asuna muttered, readying her rapier again. "'Be happy with the scraps,' Kibaou said. Hmph! Without us, the rest of the raid would be too busy fending off those 'scraps' to get anything done to Illfang at all!"

Kizmel surprised herself with a chuckle. "Then let's be sure to remind him, when all is said and done. Unseemly it may be for a knight to gloat—but demanding the respect we've earned is only fair."

And as Illfang's health was chipped away, and the latest group of Ruin Kobold Sentinels leapt down to attack, she found herself wondering. _Kayaba betrayed us, yet his magic, at least, has been as he promised. Then, perhaps… is this truly what the Swordmasters of legend are capable of?_

_Win, Sir Diavel. I must know. Is this a game—or a vision of the future you may yet bring us?_

* * *

Kirito swore under his breath, as a Ruin Kobold Sentinel's rock-mace clipped his arm. His heart wasn't really in it, though, even before the monster squealed, the point of Asuna's rapier emerging from its chest. It hadn't done that much damage, and between the fencer's attack and what he'd already done to it, the kobold shattered on her sword.

_Besides,_ he thought, risking a glance back toward the main event, _this is going better than I ever dared expect it could. Nobody's even really come close to dying, yet._

Between his own beta experience, and the huge change that was the Elf War questline beginning so early, Kirito had more than half-expected the battle to go horribly wrong within the first five minutes. That Diavel had, somehow, led the raid down almost to Illfang's last lifebar without a single fatality was a tremendous relief.

_Maybe,_ he thought, spinning to face the Sentinel Kizmel was currently dancing around, _Kayaba decided to be fair, and let us have an easy first boss. _Catching a quick nod from the elven knight, he fired off his grapnel, its cable wrapping tight around the kobold's left leg. Yanked back, it began to fall forward; Kizmel's saber flashed across its neck, finishing it before it hit the floor. _After all, if we lose here—or even win too narrowly—who's going to risk playing along with his game?_

Kirito hoped that was it, anyway. Even as he exchanged a smile with Kizmel and turned to rush at Asuna's latest opponent, he had to marvel at something else that had gone far better than he'd imagined. Half an hour into the fight, and Kizmel was still keeping up so smoothly he doubted anyone even suspected she was anything but another human player.

Asuna whipped a Streak across her Sentinel's chest, chipping off a few percent of its HP. She moved to follow up with a basic thrust—Kirito couldn't help but feel a rush of pride at how well she'd learned from his awkward lessons, that first day—only to suddenly abort and step quickly to one side. "Switch, Kirito-kun!" she called hastily, even as a glowing rock-mace careened toward her face.

"I don't think so!"

It was close, but Kirito's Horizontal got there in time. The two skills collided with a _boom,_ throwing player and mob alike off-balance. In a race to recover from the recoil, even he couldn't have guessed which of them would manage the next strike—but it didn't matter, as a charging Royal Guard buried her sword in the kobold's gut.

The Sentinel survived even Kizmel's strike. It was flung back, but it landed on clawed feet, screeching across the stone floor. It gathered itself, snarled from beneath its helmet, and with tail lashing furiously it took a lunging step forward.

A sword-wielding arm wrapped around its neck before it finished even that one step. Another arm swung up, palm aiming for the Sentinel's throat. Steel flashed unexpectedly, with a loud sound Kirito associated with a critical hit, and the kobold went limp.

When it shattered, Kirito found himself staring at the girl who'd taken it down. At her wide grin, and at the narrow blade just then retracting into its mount under her left wrist. "Thanks for the set-up, beta!" she called. "GJ!"

"GJ," he replied automatically, even as she turned to rejoin the rest of Team G. _An assassin's blade? I didn't even know you could _find_ those on Einsla. Much less be crazy enough to use one in a boss fight!_

"Alright, that's got it! We're about to hit the state change—everyone but Team A, pull back!"

Diavel's call distracted Kirito from the mystery, and he whipped his head around in time to see what the self-styled knight was talking about. Illfang's third lifebar was just emptying completely, and it had fallen to one knee in apparent pain. If everything was still as it was in the beta test, it was about to switch weapons.

_But why is Diavel pulling everyone but his own team back? It's not _that_ close to dead—_

Just as Team A got into position, the other forward teams well behind them, Illfang roared. Stood back up to its full height, and threw bone axe and shield away. Three members of Diavel's party were hit in the process, tumbling away with shouts of surprise—something Kirito did _not_ remember happening in the beta, but then the formation had been different then.

And Illfang reached behind its back, clawed hand closing on a hilt that was only then materializing. It whipped the blade out, spun it, and leveled it straight at Team A.

Long. Narrow. Gently curving up to a fine point. To Kirito's practiced eye, the steel with which it was made bore the marks of having been forged, metal folded over hundreds of times. An amazing level of detail to put into the weapon of a boss who would only be seen once.

…_Oh, no…._

"Get ready!" Diavel shouted, swinging his Anneal Blade back over his shoulder, the pre-motion for a Sonic Leap. "It's almost over!"

"_No!"_ Kirito screamed. His own companions looked at him like he'd gone crazy, Agil was frowning, Kibaou looked like he was ready to kill something, and Kirito _didn't care,_ because— "That's not a tulwar! It's a nodachi! _Get away!"_

A nodachi was longer than a tulwar. By _SAO_'s mechanics, sharper. Most important of all, _not_ using the skills someone relying on beta knowledge was expecting.

He tried to run, to get close enough to do _something_ in time. Long before he got there, before anyone could process his warning, Illfang's nodachi was whirling in the crimson half-circle of a Phantom Moon. Those of Team A who hadn't already been knocked away were caught full in the chest, HP plummeting, and flew screaming toward the far wall.

Diavel was flung hardest, sailing straight back among the other teams. Illfang leapt after him, and Kirito's heart leapt into his throat right along with. "No, get away! Don't surround him, it'll just make things worse—!"

Who knew if anyone would've listened to him. If they'd even heard him. The players panicked, some of them running in random directions, and some of them striking blindly with whatever Sword Skill came to mind. From the front, carving red lines in Illfang's stomach. From the sides, scoring his flanks. From behind, leaving fine scratches in the Kobold Lord's tail.

In the panic, few of them did much damage at all. It didn't matter anyway. With a roar, Illfang's sword blazed in crimson light again, and it spun in place in the devastating full-circle Revolving Wheel.

More screams followed, players scattered in all directions, HP dropping. Illfang didn't even seem to notice, its scarlet eyes locked on just one target. Maybe it had picked at random, maybe it was programmed for follow-up attacks. Or maybe some algorithm had recognized who was directing the raid.

Somewhere along the way, Diavel had lost Anneal Blade and shield both. As Illfang's nodachi began to glow one more time, his face was painted in stark terror—but rather than run or collapse, he made two quick gestures with his right hand, and his fingers closed on a rounded grip.

Kirito barely had time to be surprised before the pistol Diavel had conjured went off with a loud _crack._ There was no time at all to see if the single bullet did any good, before Illfang's sword blurred up from near the floor, catching the raid leader and flinging him bodily toward the not-glass ceiling of the boss room.

Diavel's legs and right arm sailed away, lopped right off his body. He was falling, and Illfang's nodachi was coming down along with for the second strike of the Scarlet Fan—

The grapnel cable whirled out, wrapping tightly around Illfang's right arm. Kirito was yanked off his feet, carried forward as the Kobold Lord stubbornly continued the cleaving blow anyway, but it was still slowed. Just a little. Just a fraction of a second.

Long enough for a Linear, like a meteor flashing through the sky, to bury itself in Illfang's flank. Long enough for a saber to come down in a two-handed chop through Illfang's tail.

Roaring at a pitch that would've hurt physical ears, Illfang staggered sideways and fell over, half a meter of its tail dropping to the stone floor to shatter.

Kirito ignored it, trusting the two girls who'd become his unlikely companions to watch his back, just for a few moments. He rolled back to his feet, dashed and skidded to Diavel's side, and yanked out a healing potion. "What the hell were you thinking?!" he demanded, none-to-gently forcing the potion to the knight's mouth, even as chaos grew among the other players. "Even if that _had_ been a tulwar, the risk—!"

Diavel gulped down the potion, coughed, and looked up with a weak, sheepish smile. "You have to ask?" he said hoarsely; only then did Kirito notice a wireframe gash in his throat, which seemed to have triggered a voice debuff. "You had a rep in the beta, you know. The LA bonus…."

So he'd found the man behind Kibaou's odd interest. Kirito wished it had been someone, anyone else. "It was still stupid," he said fiercely, ignoring that for now. "It nearly killed you."

"Thought I knew tulwar skills well enough." Diavel shrugged his good shoulder. "Guess we'll never know. Kirito…." He reached up with his remaining hand, gripped Kirito's arm. "You know Limb Loss. Be an hour before I can fight again. Can't shout with this debuff—and it looks like you know katana-type skills. Please…."

Kirito's blood ran cold. The man couldn't possibly be asking him what it sounded like. Looking around, he could see sheer pandemonium, players trying desperately to run for the doors, heal, or just deny reality. Only the Shinsengumi swordsman and the gleeful girl seemed at all effective, finishing off the last of the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. And soon enough, Illfang would recover from its own Limb Loss well enough to fight.

"What do you expect me to do?" he hissed. "The raid's broken—"

Diavel's grip tightened. "You can't let it end like this, Kirito. We _have_ to win. We… might not get another chance…."

There was a shadow, sudden and terrifying. Kirito whirled, swinging his sword up, knowing Illfang's attack would come too soon.

Darkness struck, once, twice, three times, a deadly spin with a glowing saber. Illfang stumbled, caught in the backlash of an interrupted skill. Kizmel snarled, bashing it with her shield, before forcing it back another step with a vicious thrust. "I will not allow it!"

She was still fighting. As an entire raid group of human players panicked, as Kirito felt the terror of being asked to take responsibility, an NPC held the line. Illfang retaliated, scoring a glancing blow that still knocked off ten percent of her health, and she _held the line._

"Kirito. _Win."_

Kirito took a deep, shuddering breath. Took one last look at the panicking, disorganized raid, and opened his mouth. He didn't know what he was going to say, didn't know what he _could_ say, to bring order back, but—

_Crack-boom!_

The sound of a second gunshot, so alien to a battle of swords, drew even the most panicked eyes to the source. To the sight of Asuna, pointing Diavel's pistol at the sky, barrel smoking. She'd thrown back her hood, letting chestnut hair billow free.

Hair gleaming in the light of midday sun filtered through the golden Skywall, Asuna's brown eyes were still and calm, her face cool and collected. A stern, confident warrior, whose gaze refused all doubt or fear.

…_She's beautiful…._

"This battle isn't over!" Asuna called out, strong and steady. "We can still win this! We _will_ win this!" She strode to Kirito, still kneeling over Diavel; at the same time, Kizmel skidded back to join them, driven by the recoil of clashing Sword Skills. "We have a responsibility, for the hopes and future of every Swordmaster! Now get a hold of yourselves, all of you! _Fight!"_

In a moment of crisis, humans rallied to a strong center. Panicked players pulled themselves together, people trying to flee began to drift back toward the fight. Slowly, surely, a core began to form again.

Kirito wanted to cry. _If only she'd been there, six years ago…._

Even as Illfang began to recover from the skill rebound, Asuna thrust the pistol into her belt, and placed a hand on the elven knight's shoulder. "Kizmel and I will lead the next attack! Kirito-kun—you know the pattern. Just give the word."

Asuna trusted him. People were waiting for the next word, a word that would make or break the entire raid. A raid which, itself, could determine the future of seventeen thousand lives. Diavel, the man who'd brought them to this point, was asking him.

Cold fear filled his veins, at the responsibility facing him. Illfang was roaring, charging again, and he couldn't even see to predict the attack and give warning. He was going to fail, just like back then—

"_Seiyaa!"_ A flat thrust rammed under Illfang's ribs, from an unerring katana. With a gleeful laugh, a Sonic Leap crashed into Illfang's back, buying a few more precious seconds with its stumble.

"Kirito." The voice was soft, so soft he almost thought he was imaging it. "If there's something you want to say, now is the time to do it. While you still can. Your ability to do so makes you very fortunate…."

Kirito looked up into Kizmel's eyes, at the smile she was giving him. _She trusts me. I know she's an NPC, but… I didn't think _they_ were real, either…._

He looked up at his companions. Around at the tense, waiting faces. Down at Diavel, and the self-styled knight's firm nod.

Kirito stood. "All right," he heard himself say. "Let's finish this boss, and break through. Teams B, D, F, you're up first. Just remember not to surround it, and when pay attention. There's a trick to canceling skills…."

* * *

Asuna could only assume that the loss of part of its tail was the reason Illfang had been so easily held off, in the time it took to put the raid back together. That, or the panic hadn't lasted nearly as long as it had seemed. _Or maybe both. Either way…._

The Kobold Lord was no longer slowed and stumbling. Now its nodachi was striking lightning-quick, somehow faster than its axe had been and taking full advantage of its reach. Illfang's footwork was just as quick, and it was all the forward teams could do to keep up with it. Even as Asuna rushed in, Kizmel at her side, the nodachi was flaring with crimson light as Illfang drew it back toward its shoulder.

"Team B, use upward skills, now!"

Illfang's sword raced straight out in a flat thrust—and was met with two Uppercuts and an axeman's Whirlwind. The rebound from colliding skills knocked all three players to the floor, but the remaining three were given a free opening to pummel it with spear thrusts, an axe chop, and a Vertical.

The boss was quicker to recover than it had been before, even as Sword Skills tore into its stomach. Snarling, it whirled back on one clawed foot, its nodachi spinning right along with it. The new attack started with the blade near the floor, edge turned toward the ceiling—

"Downward!"

Asuna thought that command might've been obvious, but with a still-brittle raid, it might not've been. Either way, a pair of two-handed sword-wielders from Team D brought their heavy blades down in simultaneous Avalanches, short-stopping what she was pretty sure would've been a launcher skill. Though the backlash still sent both of them flying back, it was with much less damage than a successful attack would've caused.

It also finally gave her and Kizmel an opening, and with twin shouts a Linear and a Rage Spike buried into Illfang's side. Still barely scratching the huge kobold's final lifebar, but every scratch was still that much closer to victory.

It was still hard. A moment's inattention would still get someone killed. Just a tiny opening had let Illfang dismember Diavel and follow up by completely disorganizing the raid. _But we've regrouped—and with Kirito-kun calling out the shots, we can outmaneuver it!_

It was kind of funny, really. _Asuna_ could see perfectly well that Kirito was scared out of his wits, but she doubted anyone else could. He knew what he was doing, and in that moment even Kibaou was obeying his orders without a second thought.

_Though if Diavel-san had been _paying attention,_ Kirito-kun wouldn't be in this position…._

She forced the thought away, for now. Diavel's feet of clay could wait. Even with Kirito's directions, some of Illfang's attacks were still coming through, and when another half-circle Phantom Moon threw Team F back, it was up to her and Kizmel to fill the gap until Team A could move in.

A month of working together with the elven knight was paying off, at least. Asuna didn't even have to look to know Kizmel was going to deflect Illfang's nascent Scarlet Fan with the diagonal backhand of a Rising Shadow. Just as she knew the elf girl would position herself just right for a Linear to angle up into Illfang's chestplate.

_Sooner or later, I need to learn to mix things up a little. But right now, why mess with what works?_

Her growing confidence, boosted when Team A charged in to take advantage of her strike to drive Illfang further away, took a sudden hit just an instant later. With the Kobold Lord pushed aside, she found herself very abruptly facing a pair of Ruin Kobold Sentinels—while she and Kizmel were both still gripped by post-motion.

Before Asuna could feel more than a spike of adrenaline, one of the Sentinels was suddenly tackled out of the way by a Sonic Leap. "I got this, sister!" Team G's girl called, already rolling away with a bloodthirsty grin.

The tip of a katana emerged from the other Sentinel's chest in almost the same moment. "Leave the small ones to us," the Shinsengumi swordsman told her, coolly withdrawing his blade and spinning around between the kobold and the fencer. "My skills are ill-suited to the boss, in any case."

Asuna nodded. She hadn't seen the man use even a single Sword Skill, and from the look of it basic swordplay just wasn't going to cut it against something as big as Illfang. "Thank you, um…."

"Tengu. Call me Tengu. The girl is Pitohui." Face still hidden by his mask, Tengu gave her a nod, then turned to focus his full attention on the Sentinel trying to bash his head in with a rock. "Go."

"He's very skilled," Kizmel remarked, as the two of them hurried off to rejoin the assault on Illfang. "Though I find that girl—Pitohui?—somewhat… unsettling."

"Yeah. Me, too." While Asuna hadn't quite panicked—yet—in this battle, she'd hardly say she was enjoying it. Pitohui's sheer enthusiasm was bizarre. "Right now, though, I'll take that over panic. I think…."

Not that there was time to dwell on it. Kirito's orders were keeping the battle organized, and away from the still-limbless Diavel. Her job, and Kizmel's, was to help keep things that way. If they lost the battle, the players counting on them would be demoralized, maybe fatally.

_If anyone dies while Kirito-__kun__'s giving orders, _he_ might break._

Asuna didn't know how long the battle went on from there. Time was measured in skills—nodachi skills countered, skills from half a dozen player weapons connecting in a dazzling kaleidoscope. It was measured in the moment Illfang broke free to leap high in the air, spin head over tail, and bring down its sword in a blow so heavy Kirito's only order was to _run._ Measured by the long, loping steps it took later, running to the far end of the boss room to gain distance, while four teams chased after it.

It seemed to take longer to whittle down the last lifebar than it had the first three. As she drove a leaping Linear into Illfang's jaw, Asuna had to wonder if it had some kind of defense buff to go with the change of weaponry. Flying back a moment later from a clawed roundhouse kick, a furious Kizmel rushing in to try and hack off the offending leg, she considered the possibility that her time sense had simply failed her completely.

Finally, though… finally, it was down to the last five percent. Victory was in sight, and nothing like Diavel's near-death had happened again.

Asuna supposed she should've expected people to get sloppy, then. Not that it was entirely the fault of the player teams. They were just switching places, one set moving in so the other could fall back to heal, when Illfang suddenly jumped again—and landed right between the two teams.

Leaving them surrounding it.

Asuna had just started another run-up for a Linear. She just barely had time to realize how bad it was going to be, to hear Kirito give a desperate shout, before Illfang's Revolving Wheel flashed out again. Teams A through E were flung away and scattered, Kizmel was flung back into her, and all she could see was a tangle of limbs and merciless stone.

When the world stopped spinning, she couldn't move, gripped as she was by Tumble status. She could only hear Illfang's snarl, and the high-pitched keening of another Sword Skill charging up.

Somewhere closer, there was a roar, and the flash of another sword lighting up.

* * *

Normally, one player couldn't possibly fend off a Barrier Guardian. Couldn't even hope to stagger it. Even when Illfang had still been off-balance from Limb Loss, it had taken two people at a time to sort of keep it away. One? Simply wasn't possible.

_Except right now._

When Illfang launched itself into the air, preparing to come down in a Flying Crane to finish off the players it had scattered, Kirito launched his grapnel at it, screaming a wordless battle cry, Anneal Blade held over his shoulder. Because midair, Illfang's strength and size meant nothing against pure physics and momentum. Gripped by the automatic movement of a Sword Skill, it was as helpless to change course as anyone else.

Before the first strike of the Flying Crane could come out enough to hit, Kirito's grapnel slammed home in Illfang's back. It pulled him in, his Sonic Leap coming down on Illfang's shoulder, backed by System Assist and pure mass times acceleration, faithfully rendered by _SAO_'s physics engine. The giant kobold's snarl changed to a yelp, and it was driven straight down into the floor.

The impact was enough to stun even a Barrier Guardian. Not long enough for Kirito to properly capitalize on it, not recovering as he was from his own landing—but long enough for Asuna and Kizmel, somehow already back on their feet, to charge in.

A month fighting together paid off. Asuna's rapier drove a Linear into the prone boss' thick flank, piercing deep into its flesh; a calculated half-second later, Kizmel's saber ripped a Rising Shadow's backhand through almost the same spot. Another second after that, and Kirito dragged a Slant down through a leg.

Illfang snapped back upright, snarling, but they'd timed their attacks carefully. Asuna was ready again, yet another Linear blazing in to shove it back a step. Kizmel leapt to slash a midair Reaver across its snout, making it squeal and blink.

That deadly nodachi came flashing out then, trying to throw them away with a Phantom Moon. Kirito's Slant caught it before it could strike home, bouncing them both back.

The deadly dance couldn't have lasted more than fifteen, twenty seconds. But for that time, Asuna's rapier stabbed, Kizmel's saber slashed and thrust, and Kirito's Anneal Blade cut off three different nodachi skills stillborn. One percent drained away from that last lifebar. Then two.

Kirito had studied katana skills extensively, the last few days of the beta test. They'd killed him enough times, after all, in the last dungeon he'd reached. But they had been in only that last dungeon, in the last three days of the beta test. His memory wasn't perfect.

The moment his reflexes thought Illfang was starting a Scarlet Fan's first strike, only to be a Phantom Moon's half-circle, was almost the end.

He and his companions were thrown back, sudden and hard, bleeding red particle sprays and losing HP fast. They landed in a tangle of limbs, and even as a part of Kirito's mind realized Asuna would never forgive where his left hand had ended up, he knew there was no chance they'd get untangled before Illfang's next attack.

Looking up past Kizmel's chest, he saw Illfang's teeth bared in a malicious canine grin. Saw it wind up for a Scarlet Fan, this time for certain. Knew that at the rate his and his companions' HP was dropping, none of them would survive the full three hits.

The nodachi flashed out—

A deep _boom_ filled the air, as an axe whirled in a glowing blue wheel and intercepted the skill. The axeman was tossed back, skidding on his heels, but the lancer and two-handed swordsman with him rushed past, hitting Illfang with a Straight Thrust and an Avalanche.

Recovering his footing, Agil flashed a grin. "Hey, you guys! Can't let you have all the fun. Heal up, we'll hold 'im off!"

"Thanks!"

First order of business, as Team G pressed the attack, was to get his hands and face _out_ of where they were. Then, along with a faintly blushing Asuna and a perfectly calm Kizmel, Kirito hurried to down a potion. He wasn't in the red, none of them quite were, but it was a near thing.

_Some__how__, it's still not as frightening as the responsibility._ He stared at the lifebars hanging in the upper-left of his vision, willing them to go up faster, faster. _I can't let anyone die. I can't screw this up!_

Near the doors, he could see Diavel still lying there, three of his limbs still gone. He was alive, and his HP had long since gone back to the blue, but in his state he was still helpless. Worse, the debuff that had nearly cut off his voice seemed to have knocked him out, or at least disabled his avatar. He hadn't done more than breathe since Kirito took over command of the raid.

"Kirito-kun!"

Asuna's shout dragged his attention back to the battle—just in time to see one more Phantom Moon scatter Team G again. Their HP was still high enough, they weren't in any danger, but they were out of the fight for a few precious seconds.

And Illfang, Kirito realized with a sudden chill, was apparently set to prioritize injured players.

Illfang was already running. Kirito was back on his feet before he could even think, uncaring that his own HP was still recovering. "Let's go!" he shouted to his companions, already knowing the answers he'd get.

"Right behind you!"

"But of course!"

It was a race, to reach the Lord of the Kobolds before the monster could finish off Diavel. The other teams were back in the fight, but on the wrong side of the room; they'd never make it in time. It was up to Team H, the team assigned to the "scraps".

Asuna was first, shouting wordlessly, rapier blurring into one last Linear. The meteoric skill caught Illfang in the side, slowing it; Kizmel's bodily charge, smashing her shield into its gut, made it stumble. Then Kirito was there, leaping right onto that shield, sword glowing deep red. _"It's over!"_

The Anneal Blade slammed down into Illfang's left shoulder, carving deep into its chest, down to the top of its stomach. Even as it roared its last defiance, the sword twisted, and ripped back up through the right shoulder, the Vertical Arc leaving a deep, red "V".

Silence, for a long moment, even the monster's last howl stilled. No motion, except the drifting red polygons from the wound.

Then there was a great crack of shattering glass, and Illfang the Kobold Lord broke into thousands of azure shards.

_Is it… over…?_

**[Congratulations!]**

Between that huge notice floating in the middle of the boss room, and the accompanying musical fanfare, Kirito barely noticed the smaller pop-up telling him his rewards. He was distracted by the sudden burst of cheers and back-slapping among the players, Asuna's wide, bright-eyed smile, and Kizmel's formal salute.

All of that, and the realization that, against all odds, they'd _survived._ A full-on Barrier Guardian battle, and every single player had lived through it.

"We won," Asuna whispered. "We really won." She glanced over at Diavel. "Will he be okay?"

"Limb Loss wears off in about an hour," Kirito assured her. Raising his hand, he exchanged a quick high-five with the fencer, along with a tired smile. "I don't know what the other debuff is, but it's not killing him… maybe he's just exhausted." He knew he was. Avatars didn't get fatigue, exactly, but the mental effort was catching up with him.

"Like as not. My own people are still learning exactly how deeply this world affects the mind." Kizmel was smiling, barely visible beneath her hood. "Regardless. We will live to find out. Good work, Kirito, Asuna." She hesitated a moment, then lifted her hand, much as Kirito had done moments before.

"We couldn't have done it without you," he told her sincerely, slapping her hand in turn. "You might be what made the difference, compared to how things went back in the beta test."

She chuckled. "You flatter me."

"Nah, I think he's got it right." Agil sauntered over, axe resting on his shoulder. "The three of you? Kept this whole crazy thing together. Me, I thought we were done for, when Diavel got chopped up. If you three hadn't gotten our freaked-out carcasses moving again…." He shook his head, grinning. "This victory's yours. Congratulations."

Another time, he might've found it interesting that the last word was in perfect English, when Agil otherwise spoke in just as perfect Japanese. As it was, Kirito shifted uncomfortably. "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have—"

_**CRASH!**_

There was absolutely no warning. Just the high-pitched sound of the Skywall Tower's transparent roof shattering to pieces, sending players scattering in all directions. Kirito whipped around, instinctively bringing up his Anneal Blade again, trying to find the source—and froze, almost dropping his sword.

A great dragon, like something out of a Western legend, landed its taloned feet on the stone floor with an ear-splitting screech. Its deep blue scales were covered in places by plates of armor strapped over its hide, making it plain this was no feral beast.

The mere sight of it made Kirito's knees buckle. He knew exactly what the dragon was, even six years on. He knew what had just appeared before the raid group. _No. Not here. Now now. We can't handle this so soon! We have to run—!_

"Swordmasters!" rang out a voice, clear and pure as a crystal bell. "Remain where you are. Raise a weapon against me, and I will be forced to respond in kind."

Then the rider dropped lightly to the floor, coming into plain view, and every muscle in Kirito's virtual body froze stiff from pure shock. A tall woman, wearing blue-trimmed gold armor over blue cloth, with a matching blue cape. Deep blue eyes, examining the scene with cold dispassion. Blonde hair, tied in a long braid reaching all the way down her back.

The armor of the knights he feared the most. A face he still saw in his nightmares, even after all these years.

"…Alice…?"

* * *

Kizmel had no idea why Kirito, summoned warrior from another world, reacted so strongly to the enemy that now appeared before them. She had no idea the significance of the name he'd just uttered. But she did not blame him at all for his sudden fear. No, if anything, she felt the same urge to flee she could see in his eyes.

_An Integrity Knight. Here. Why…?_

"What the hell is this?!"

Kibaou was the first Swordmaster to react, brandishing his sword with belligerence to match his words. Only then did Kizmel realize, to her horror, that most of the humans around her had _no_ idea what had just come onto the scene.

There was no time to try and warn the rude Swordmaster, even were he inclined to listen. The Integrity Knight turned her cold gaze on him, and took two measured steps away from her dragon. "Keep a civil tongue, Swordmaster," she said. "Or be prepared to lose it."

"Is this another boss?" Asuna whispered, edging closer to the frozen Kirito. "…Kirito-kun? What's going on…?"

"Don't move," Kizmel hissed, when the youth made no reply. "We're in greater danger than you know."

"I am Alice Synthesis Thirty, an Integrity Knight," the armored woman proclaimed then, raising her chin to look over the raid group. "Your actions here have drawn the eye of the Highest Administrator." Another step. "Be glad I've not been sent here to punish you all for this. Only one among you has committed a sin grave enough to merit intervention."

With a start, Kizmel realized the Integrity Knight—Alice—had landed close to the fallen Diavel. And that, in the chaos of Illfang's final moments, not a single Swordmaster had remained to guard him.

She wasn't the only one to notice. "Stay away from Diavel-han!" Kibaou snarled, stepping toward her. "Get any closer, an' I'll—!"

Alice's gaze locked on him again, turning from dispassion to a fierce glare. "Do _not_ presume to command me, knave," she said sharply. "Be silent. I won't warn you again."

Her dragon added a roar, clearly a warning of its own, as she stalked over to Diavel. The saner Swordmasters, like Asuna and Agil, flinched from the sound—recognizing, Kizmel hoped, that the Knight was by no means the only threat. Kirito certainly did, knees suddenly giving way.

"I said, stay the _hell_ away from him!"

Kibaou's snarl roused the rest of his team, and to Kizmel's horror they rushed forward, yelling and readying their weapons to unleash skills. _"Stop!"_ she screamed, uncaring then if her own nature was revealed. "You can't defeat her, don't even try!"

Alice was only a step away from Diavel, when six Swordmasters set upon her. Too far away for her dragon to intervene with anything short of the fire breath Kizmel knew it possessed, which would have harmed her as well.

It didn't matter. Her eyes only narrowed, and her hand flashed to the golden hilt hanging at her left hip. There was a blur of motion, almost too fast for elven eyes to see. A streak of golden light, flashing in a wide arc.

Enraged battle cries turned to frightened screams, as one blow flung Kibaou and his cohorts away in sprays of red, their lifebars draining fast. To a man, they hit the floor hard, rolling so far Kibaou himself almost tumbled out through the shattered wall before he came to a stop.

In the space of a moment, their lifebars had turned a deep, warning red.

"Hmph." Alice slid her golden sword away, and eyed the fallen with disdain—tempered by a faint respect, Kizmel thought. "Though I held back, I honestly expected that to kill you all. You're made of sterner stuff than I supposed." She turned away, cape fluttering in the breeze allowed in by the broken walls. "Don't test me again. I have your measure now."

To Kizmel's relief, none of the other Swordmasters seemed inclined to make another try. Not even when Alice picked up Diavel's dismembered body and slung him over her shoulder. Most only cowered; only Agil and Tengu moved to help Kibaou's team.

Though the gleam in Pitohui's eye, as the girl watched the Integrity Knight, gave Kizmel considerable pause.

She wanted to stop Alice herself. It went against every fiber of her knight's soul to allow a minion of the Axiom Church to take away a comrade, even a human. _But alone—even with Asuna, or Kirito—I could hope for nothing but an "honorable" death. And my duty is too important to throw away my life, even for this._

So Kizmel stayed her hand, and only watched as Alice walked back to her dragon, carrying Diavel like a sack. Watched, and promised herself that when the Swordmasters had grown into the power Kayaba Akihiko had promised, there would be a reckoning.

"Why?"

The voice startled Kizmel, and drew Alice up short. The Integrity Knight paused, one step away from her dragon's saddle, and turned back to look. "What?"

Kirito, back on his feet, squared his shoulders. "Why are you doing this?" he said, voice harsh and grating. "What's Diavel done that we haven't? We killed one of the Barrier Guardians! We're one step away from bringing down the first Skywall! Why single him out?" He stepped toward her, hands clenching—to hide their trembling, Kizmel thought. "I haven't seen any sign of the Senate, either. If he's broken a taboo, why haven't they responded?"

_What?_

Alice turned to face him fully, free hand near—but not on—the hilt of her golden sword. "The Swordmasters are beyond the Senate's power," she said, watching him carefully. "And this Swordmaster reached a place no one is permitted to touch. The rest of you will doubtless be dealt with one day, if your rebellion continues, but Her Excellency is willing to be patient with you. Diavel's crime is beyond that."

Kizmel frowned, confusion edging past her fear. Puzzling as the Integrity Knight's vague statement was, odder still was the fact that Kirito's face tightened, as if he knew exactly of what the woman spoke.

"So, history repeats, huh? …And I'm just as helpless this time." Taking a long, deep breath, Kirito closed his eyes. When they opened, he fixed Alice with a hard stare. "This isn't over. Someday, we'll come for him. We'll take Diavel back, even if we have to go through every Integrity Knight to do it."

"He's right!" Asuna declared, stepping up to his right. Leveling a defiant stare at the Integrity Knight, she continued, "We've already struck the first blow today. This won't be the last."

Audacious. Kizmel might've called it foolhardy—she was sure most of her fellow Pagoda Knights would've called the pair of them insane. _But Kirito seems to know what he's doing. I will not let the two of them take this risk alone._ Boldly, she moved to Kirito's left, mirroring Asuna. "You may find, Dame Alice, that this rebellion is not such a simple matter to crush," she said, with a calm confidence she didn't quite feel. "The Swordmasters are not your only foes."

_And now to see if the bluff stands,_ a corner of her mind thought, bleakly amused. _Truthfully, none of us have the strength to stop her now…._

But instead of drawing her sword, as Kizmel expected, Alice ignored elf and fencer alike, and looked Kirito over, head to toe. "…Who are you?"

"You don't know?"

A hard-edged question—yet Kizmel thought there was pain buried in the words.

"The Swordmasters have been here a bare month," Alice said, shaking her head. "How would I know one of you from another so soon?"

"Heh. Guess so." Kirito raised his right hand, invoking the Swordmasters' Mystic Scribing. A few short gestures, and suddenly his gray jacket was gone, replaced by a long, black leather coat. "I'm Kirito. The one who's going to take you, one day."

"…Kirito…." Alice said slowly. Just as slowly, she nodded. "I'll remember that name, Swordmaster. You will wish I did not."

She swung herself up on her dragon, then, Diavel still slung across her shoulders. A shouted command, and the beast turned to the shattered wall, took two quick steps, and flung itself into the sky. Wings beating against the air, the dragon flew up to the now-flickering light of the Skywall, and was gone.

Kirito collapsed to one knee, head bowed.

* * *

Asuna felt like following her partner to the stone floor, and if she'd gotten any measure yet of Kizmel, the elf girl wasn't much better off. _I have no idea what just happened, but I think we just dodged a bullet._

Kirito had made several offhand comments about Integrity Knights before. Never any detail, but enough for Asuna to know that one showing up here and now could've killed them. If she'd had any doubt of that, the way "Alice" had so casually swatted Kibaou's entire team away certainly chased it away.

_And it's not _fair._ Not now! _She stared out the shattered walls, at the Skywall through which the dragon had already disappeared. _We beat the boss, and we didn't lose _anyone,_ and then some crazy boss from way later shows up and kidnaps Diavel?! That's not how this was supposed to go!_

Only Asuna was pretty sure that it was even worse than that. Her partner had _recognized_ the Integrity Knight. There was a lot more going on than she could see, and he had some explaining to do.

Later. When he didn't look like he was going to collapse. "Kirito-kun?" she said, bending to lay a hand on his shoulder. "Are you—?"

"_Why?!"_

The shout—almost a scream—made Asuna flinch, and she and Kizmel both turned to look at the source. Kibaou, it was, himself on his knees, face twisted in anguish and fury.

"Look at me!" the man demanded, shoving himself to his feet. "Answer me, dammit! Why the hell'd ya let her take Diavel-han?!" He took a step forward, fists clenched. "And what the hell's she gonna do with him?! C'mon, ya damn beta, _say something!"_

"Hey, now, Kibaou!" At the other side of the boss room, Agil heaved himself upright, propping himself up on the haft of his axe. "In case you didn't notice, _your_ team got blasted half to death when _you_ tried it. What the hell do you think one guy was gonna do against _that?"_

For a second, that seemed to bring Kibaou up short, and Asuna let out a breath of relief. The rude player had a temper and a grudge, but it looked like he wasn't completely unreasonable. Which was good, because if her experience at school had taught her anything, it was how to see social blood in the water. _Push too hard, after what just happened, and—_

"Like Kibaou said, he's a beta!" another player shouted—screeched, really. Asuna couldn't quite see his face, half-hidden behind Kibaou, but she didn't think she'd seen him before the raid. "All that stuff he knew when the boss switched weapons, what he said to the other boss—he could've stopped Diavel from getting hurt in the first place!"

Asuna opened her mouth to make a quick, angry response. Kizmel beat her to it, stepping between Kirito and the other players, cloak swaying in the wind from the broken windows. "What, exactly, are you insinuating?" the elf girl said coldly, eyes narrow in the depths of her hood.

"What do _you_ think, lady?!" the screechy player demanded. "He let Diavel take that hit, he got the damn Last Attack bonus—of course he'd let Diavel get kidnapped! He wants all the good stuff, just like Kibaou's been saying!"

"What?!" Asuna demanded, taken aback. Kirito had done everything he could to _stop_ the hit that had almost killed Diavel. If it hadn't been for Kirito's grapnel, the raid leader _would_ have died. "You can't possibly be serious—!"

But there was a murmur starting, in the shell-shocked raid. They'd all just barely survived the first boss fight of the game, only to have something they knew nothing about suddenly appear and snatch away their leader. They were scared—and Asuna knew all too well what scared people were like.

"Yeah, how _did_ he know all that?"

"Even the Rat's guide didn't have half of that, and nobody said anything about 'Integrity Knights' or whatever!"

"…Didn't even look scared when she showed up—"

_This is just like launch day,_ she thought, chilled. _Only worse. We just won a fight, and then _that_ happened, and right now we're all trapped here…._

She shot a quick glance at Kizmel, getting a subtle nod in return. If this kept up, they'd grab Kirito and—well, she wasn't sure what. But they'd get him out, and figure out the next step from there.

"Now hold on a damn minute!" Agil roared. "What the hell do you think he could've done against _that?!_ Beta, hell, he's hurt as bad as the rest of us!"

"And that other boss _talked_ to him!" the screechy player shot back. "You think he didn't know a way out of this?!" He started to push forward, gesticulating wildly. "Like those guides from Argo! The betas, they're just out for themselves, and now we've got proof!"

It was crazy. But witch hunts always were, and now Asuna felt a spike of fear for the information broker. She didn't know her very well, and the girl was a troll, but she was _honest._ And if a mob decided beta testers in general were at fault—were the enemy—

A laugh cut through Agil's angry, incredulous retort. High, echoing in the shattered boss room—and mocking. A laugh that shut down the yelling and the muttering in an instant, and made Asuna's hair stand on end.

Kirito rose to his feet, still laughing, and turned to face the rest of the raid. New coat billowing in the wind from the shattered walls, he stepped past Asuna and Kizmel, boots ringing loudly on the stone. His laughter trailed off, leaving a wide, disturbing grin. "Oh, you guys don't get it at all, do you?" he called out, voice pitched to carry without quite shouting. "You think this was my fault? That the betas are somehow going to get super loot from gaming the system? Get real!"

"What?" Another player—Asuna thought he'd been in Diavel's own party—pushed forward, glaring at Kirito. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Weren't you paying attention? Diavel _found something he shouldn't have._" Kirito shrugged leather-clad shoulders, a casual, careless gesture. "Normally you'd never see an Integrity Knight this early, but on top of being bosses, they're Kayaba's moderators. When somebody finds a system exploit, they're sent in after. Which means us beta testers are the ones most in danger, not you noobs."

_What?_

"And y'know," Kirito continued, still grinning that unnerving grin, "we do know some good exploits. But now most of us can't use 'em, or… well, that." Another shrug, as he tossed a quick glance out the shattered walls. "I don't know what'll happen to Diavel now, the system can't just ban us, but… whatever it is, us betas will have to look over our shoulders from now on."

"Wait… just wait a second." The player from Diavel's team stared at Kirito, frown deepening. "If this is about exploits—then the betas really _did_ do this to Diavel-san!"

"Oh, yeah, pretty much. Not Argo, though, she's never had the guts to dig into anything that might've gotten her banned. Nah, it would've been somebody more guts—but less brains." Kirito _tsk_ed. "Me, I learned back in the beta when to push, and when to get the hell out." His grin narrowed to a smug smile. "But you know what? A beta got Diavel into this—but _you_ guys are why she got away with him."

Asuna shivered. She knew he was lying through his teeth, that for whatever reason he was putting up an act—but it was a good one. She almost bought it herself, and from the murmurs and glances among most of the raid, it was doing exactly what he wanted with most of them.

Which, with that last sentence, seemed to be to make some people _really mad._ "What the hell're you talking about?!" Kibaou demanded, fury back up to full steam. "We tried—!"

"Oh, sure, _you_ did. It was dumb," Kirito added with a chuckle, "but you had the right idea." He swept out an arm, gesturing at the raid at large. "C'mon! She was only here for Diavel, sure, but after Kibaou attacked, you really think she wouldn't have aggroed?" He snorted. "Over forty people still here. Integrity Knights are powerful, but they're not invincible. If you cowards had gotten your act together, all gone for her at once, you think you couldn't have driven her off?"

An uneasy silence fell at that. Most of the raid didn't seem to know if they were being insulted or complimented—or both. Asuna only shivered, having a pretty good idea that Kirito would never have suggested such a thing during the event. _No way we could've have taken her on. Not yet._

"…How the hell d'you know all that, anyway?" Kibaou demanded, fury warring with a wariness that Asuna hoped was a good sign.

"How else?" Kirito turned to point at the Skywall, still glimmering beyond the tower walls. "I got farther than anybody else, during the beta test. I fought clear to the Tenth Island, saw things nobody else did. Even ran into an Integrity Knight or two. And the truth is, you guys are better than just about any tester was. Of course you are," he added, smirking at the looks that claim got him. "Two thousand people, chosen at random, in the beta test? Most of them weren't hardcore gamers. You guys… _you're_ the ones who know what you're doing. If you'd kept it together after the fight, you'd still have Diavel." He raised his hands in another shrug, and turned away. "Remember that name, Diavel. _I_ will. And while you guys are figuring out if you're gamers or wimps, I'm going to do what I do best."

"Which is?" For the first time since Illfang's defeat, Tengu spoke up. Face unreadable behind his mask, the only hint to his feelings was a slight tilt of his head. "Where are you going?"

"Where else?" Kirito set off toward Illfang's throne at a calm, steady pace, coat billowing in his wake. "We unlock the Skywall in this room. It goes down when the first airship crosses the border. I'm going to go on ahead, farther and faster than anyone else. I'm going to beat this game, even if I have to do it myself."

Asuna shared a quick look with Kizmel, and then the two of them were following after. They matched his measured pace, cloaks swaying as dramatically as Kirito's longcoat. If the situation had been any less serious, she would've giggled; as it was, she did her best to keep up the act.

_Diavel was right, after all,_ she thought, as the three of them mounted the low dais on which Illfang's throne stood. _The players need a symbol. Now, more than ever._

Later, she was going to freak out about what had happened. Later, when there was time. Right then, Asuna only watched as Kirito sat in the too-large seat that had been Illfang's, and as Kizmel moved to stand by the left armrest. Doing her best to imitate the Knight's poise, she took a spot to the right.

Somehow, she wasn't surprised by the golden light that lanced up to the Skywall Tower's ceiling, the moment Kirito was settled into the throne. Just as she wasn't surprised when, with a low rumble of stone-on-stone, the throne and its dais began to sink into the floor.

Asuna wondered, as they began to descend, how many of the faces now sliding out of view she'd see again. _Was this enough? Did we get the victory we needed?_

_And… what's really going on here?_

* * *

It was a really, really good thing that the switch to unlock the Skywall was Illfang's throne. After everything, Kirito was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to keep up his act any longer. Not without collapsing. _I can't believe I just did that. Any of that._

…_I am _so_ going to have nightmares tonight._

"I must commend you, Kirito," Kizmel said, leaning against the throne's armrest. "That was quite the tale you wove for the other Swordmasters."

Her voice echoed in the shaft the throne descended; not surprising, considering the dais was big enough for an entire raid to ride down. The elf girl's wry comment, and subsequent chuckle, bounced off the walls in a way that only emphasized the emptiness that was three people in a space meant for almost fifty.

"Which is going to fall apart the minute they have a chance to think," Asuna pointed out, sitting on the opposite armrest with a shake of her head. "It better, anyway. I don't know half of what just happened, but I'm sure you were lying through your teeth about the raid being able to beat that Integrity Knight."

"I had to keep them believing," Kirito said wearily, slumping in the throne. His eyes were locked on the stone walls scrolling up as they descended the Skywall Tower, but he wasn't really seeing it. "The truth is, the raid really did go better than it ever did in the beta. If they just don't lose hope, we've got a real chance here."

In the beta, the raid against that first Barrier Guardian had wiped completely twice, and even the successful run had lost people. To defeat Illfang the Kobold Lord, _after_ it had unexpectedly revealed a change in attack pattern, with no casualties? As far as he was concerned, it was an out-and-out miracle.

"The Swordmasters certainly exceeded my expectations today," Kizmel mused, lightly tapping her fingers on the throne. "…And when they inevitably do encounter an Integrity Knight again? I admire your courage standing up to her, Kirito, but you clearly know as well as I how badly that would have gone had she pressed the matter."

_Oh, yeah._ "I do," he admitted. "But one thing I wasn't lying about is that I don't think most players are going to be in danger any time soon. Eventually the Axiom Church will start sending them after players just clearing the Skywalls, but by then we should be strong enough to treat them as high-level bosses, not unwinnable ones."

"And how _do_ you know that, exactly?" As the throne-turned-elevator began to slow, Asuna turned a hard look on him. Much as he wanted to look away from that amber stare, he found he couldn't. "Kirito-kun. You _recognized_ her—and you expected her to recognize _you._ Why?"

With a dull _thud,_ the throne and its dais came to a halt. A low groan of stone-on-stone, and the wall behind them opened up, leading out to the ground at the Skywall Tower's base.

Kirito could feel Asuna's impatience, and within her hood he could see Kizmel was waiting with a very un-NPC-like intensity herself. Even so, they gave him time, as they left Illfang's throne and walked out into the afternoon sun. The Skywall still glimmered above, but there was a sense of waiting, like the world itself was holding its breath.

_I wonder how they're going to handle _Liberator_? With Diavel gone, they're going to have to pick a successor. Can't imagine _that's_ going to be smooth. I said I'd go on ahead to goad them, but I'll be kind of surprised if we _don't_ get our ship up and running first. We'd better, anyway, Captain Emlas must be getting pretty impatient by now…._

"Kirito," Kizmel finally prompted, when they began to approach the tunnels leading away from the Tower. "Why are you so sure we'll not be pursued, as Sir Diavel was?"

"And what do you know about that Integrity Knight?" Asuna demanded, eyes narrow. "You told me, on launch day, no beta tester ever encountered one. But you _knew _her." She folded her arms. "Was she a member of the game's staff or something? A moderator working with Kayaba?"

Kirito sighed. Stopped in his tracks, and turned to look up at the golden wall above. _As scary as it would be for Kayaba to have allies, I wish that _was_ it. …At least then, maybe this would make some kind of sense. As it is… this shouldn't be possible. She can't _be_ here…._

"I think I know what Diavel found," he said finally, remembering a dark cave, a pale face, and years worth of nightmares. "And no. In the beta test, even I never actually met an Integrity Knight.

"But six years ago, she wasn't an Integrity Knight." He shivered, thinking back to the cold blue eyes he'd face not so long before, so different from the warmth he remembered. "Six years ago, she was still Alice Zuberg, of Rulid Village. …My friend."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

* * *

So, yeah. I expected to have this up over a month ago. Long story, not least of which being a switch to a new computer (thankfully under controlled conditions, this time), but mostly relating to a health problem I'm currently dealing with. Doesn't seem to be too serious, but it's made writing difficult at best, so… yeah. On top of being late, this was supposed to have a bit more polish in a couple scenes, but after everything I decided "good enough". Might touch it up later, but I really wanted this up, finally. I hope it doesn't suffer too badly as a result.

Not too much to remark on here—as far as I can recall—but I will note a couple things. First, this was originally intended to go clear to the launch of Team Kirito's airship. I could still have gotten it that far, if I'd cut a couple of scenes, but in the end I decided it wouldn't be a good idea. The scenes leading up to that will have a very different tone from where I did end it, which I think would've just been too much Mood Whiplash. (A pity, since I really wanted the launch sequence to be an end-of-chapter event, but eh. Needs must.)

That being said, next chapter will be bringing in airships in earnest. I have _plans_ for the opening of Aincrad's skies. Speaking of which, I did try to do research on ship classifications, but considering how wildly definitions seem to have varied in the Age of Sail—and really, even in modern times—I finally decided it was simply more practical to invent a classification system specific to Aincrad. …Kind of a work in progress, I admit.

Ah. One error I should remark on: only in the final proofread pass did I realize adding Kizmel to Kirito and Asuna's party while leaving the total raid size the same as in canon meant another party was short one. Considering that addressing that will require edits to the previous chapter as well, I've decided to fix that one at a later date. But it _will_ be fixed.

Well… I think that about covers things here. This marks the point where the story's real twists start to kick in, and I hope they were enjoyable. I make no promises, especially under the circumstances for the next update; I do need to write a particularly pivotal event in _Monochrome Duet,_ after all. But if I have anything to say about it, I won't leave this hanging too long. I know I just dropped some major bombshells, and I want to follow them up as soon as possible.

Until the next chapter, lemme know if this was worth the wait, or if I completely bungled it (or whatever in between). 'Til next time, comrades. _-Solid_


	5. Chapter V: We're Breaking New Ground

**Chapter V: "We're Breaking New Ground"**

* * *

December 4th, 2032

* * *

"Out with it, Kirito-kun."

"I believe you _did_ promise us an explanation, Kirito. We certainly seem to have plenty of time for it now."

The intensity of Asuna's stare didn't surprise Kirito in the least. He'd been annoying her every hour or so from the day they met. That Kizmel, hood thrown back now that they were safely away from the raid, was gazing at him through narrowed eyes… that, he hadn't quite expected.

_No NPC should care that much about a player's past. It's not part of her quest, it shouldn't even occur to her to ask. …But Alice shouldn't even exist, let alone here. Who am I to say what an "NPC" is really like?_

Looking away from those hard stares, to the surrounding forest as _Moonshadow_ lifted from her hiding place, Kirito knew he was just avoiding the question. Out here on the deck, he didn't even have the luxury of putting it off any longer.

Finally, he dropped down to sprawl on the deck, pulling his new longcoat close. "The beta test wasn't the first time I visited Aincrad," he said, staring down at the dark wood of _Moonshadow_'s deck. "In fact, I… don't remember when the first time was. Growing up, Aincrad was just… part of my life."

Asuna sat down hard, drawing her knees up to her chest as she stared at him. "What? But—Full-Dive technology didn't even exist until a couple years ago! Um," she added, glancing at Kizmel, "Full-Dive is—"

"The machinery you use to connect with Aincrad's spell," the elf girl said, nodding. "That much, I've come to understand since I met you." Settling more gracefully to the deck, she waved a hand at Kirito. "Please, go on."

_Thank you, Kayaba, for being thorough…. _"As long as I can remember," he said slowly, "when I went to sleep at night, at home, I'd wake up somewhere else. Rulid Village, on Einsla Island." He glanced out over the starboard railing, where forest was giving way to mountains. "Or rather, in a cave, down beneath an old well. So long ago I don't even remember, I found my way to the surface, and, well… I'd hang out there, when I was 'sleeping'."

The fencer was looking at him like he was crazy. Kizmel, though, took a sharp breath, eyes widening. "You're a Lost Child of Vector?"

"A what?" Asuna said sharply.

"People cast adrift from another world," the elf girl explained, still staring at Kirito. "Said to be toyed with by the dark god, Vector. No one knows why, though some among my people believe he is using them to test the Gates beyond which he was banished." She visibly shivered. "Those who remain in Aincrad seldom remember much of their old lives. Others, who recall themselves, are often pulled back to their own world eventually."

_Okay, this is getting spookier every minute._ "That's what they called me," Kirito said, nodding. "And every morning, I'd wake up back in my own bed in Tokyo. Even when it felt like more than just eight hours had gone by for me."

He could still remember it. Vividly, despite his best efforts to bury it. Just as he'd known every path through Einsla's woods, in the dark, the very first night of the beta test. Just as he could remember his grandfather's reaction, when he was finally old enough to figure out there was something strange.

"That, um…." For once, Asuna looked genuinely lost for words. "That sounds, well… weird. And confusing."

"Normal enough for a Lost Child," Kizmel put in quietly. "My people have dealt with them only seldom, but because of what they represent, we've been thorough in investigating when they do appear. Oddities with time are believed to be related to crossing the gulf between worlds."

Definitely spooky. "It's also normal for human REM sleep—um, dreaming, I mean," Kirito corrected himself, when Kizmel looked blank. "You can have a dream that feels like hours, and it really was all over in seconds. I did my research," he added, when Asuna blinked at him. "Let's say, when I finally thought to ask somebody about it, I was told in no uncertain terms I was dreaming. When I was old enough to understand the words, I did a _lot_ of research on sleeping and dreams."

_Moonshadow_ eased into a turn to port, slipping between two of Einsla's taller mountains. The gust as the ship's bow turned briefly into the wind ruffled his hair, and sent both his coat and the girls' cloaks flapping; the time it took to get them under control gave him precious moments to gather his thoughts.

"So… when you were talking about the Axiom Church, the Integrity Knights, all of that, on the first day…." Asuna looked up at the Skywall, dimmed and flickering as it had been since Illfang's defeat. "That wasn't beta knowledge at all, was it?"

"No," Kirito admitted reluctantly. "They were stories I heard in Rulid Village, growing up. They told me a lot… once they decided I wasn't a demon child from the Dark Territory or something."

Kizmel twitched at that. Instead of remarking on that, though, she said, "'I begin to understand why you've always avoided Rulid Village. The Integrity Knight we met today—she was someone you knew there, wasn't she?"

He didn't want to remember that. Not the people, not the one he'd—mistakenly—counted on to help him, not Alice. And _definitely_ not how it had all ended. _But they deserve to know—and I need to know what's going on here._

The girls gave him time to gather his courage, at least. He appreciated that. Finally, though, Kirito faced them squarely. "Alice Zuberg, her little sister Selka, and a local boy," he said, folding his hands together. "Alice was an apprentice herbalist, a prodigy…. We spent a lot of time together, in those years. Exchanging stories, playing around, getting into trouble…. Y'know, the usual kid stuff."

"…I wish I did…."

Kirito wasn't sure he'd really heard Asuna. He was pretty sure if he had, she hadn't meant him to. He pretended he hadn't either way; she hadn't confided him much about her real life, and unlike his past, it wasn't relevant. He'd mind his own business.

_We're not friends, after all. Just partners._ He glanced at Kizmel, and hid a flinch. _None of us are. Just travelers on the same road, for a little while._

"We were good friends," he said, when the silence began to drag on. "I didn't understand what was going on, everything I knew said they couldn't be real—but it was fun. Even if I did think I was just dreaming." He surprised himself by chuckling. "My sister even liked the stories I'd tell her about Aincrad, even if she thought I was just making it all up. Until…."

"Six years ago," Kizmel prompted, when Kirito fell silent. Her gaze was gentle, but firm—a knight, he thought, demanding a painful but important answer. "You said Alice was your friend six years ago. What happened then?"

He swallowed. Six years, he'd tried to forget. Told himself it wasn't happening any more, so obviously none of it had ever been real at all. It was the only way he'd been able to cope, between that and his discovery in the waking world. "Six years ago," he said, forcing the words out, "we finally decided to find out how I was coming to Aincrad. So… the three of us went down into the old well—"

A soft footfall, and a cleared throat, interrupted him. "I'm very sorry to interrupt," Captain Emlas said, emerging from _Moonshadow_'s sterncastle. "But we'll soon be at your destination, and I believe we have business to conclude."

The three of them scrambled to their feet, Asuna slipping over to join Kirito, Kizmel going to the Dark Elf captain's side. From the look on the fencer's face, the discussion wasn't over, but for now there really was other business.

_Especially since we took down the first Barrier Guardian. We've got a job to do, and Diavel's not around to do it._

Emlas stared at Kirito and his partner for a long moment, as if measuring them. "So. I believe this fulfills our bargain, Swordmasters. I had my doubts, when Dame Kizmel first brought you to my ship, but you have proven those doubts groundless. Though I will admit I'm not so sure about some of your fellows." A shrug. "The actions of other Swordmasters are of no consequence here regardless. You've acted in good faith, and I shall repay in kind."

Kirito hardly paid attention to Captain Emlas' words. It was pure formula, no different from any other quest completion he'd experienced. _Almost no different,_ he corrected himself. _This one… is going to hurt._

"Thank you, Captain," Asuna said, taking the lead with only a quick, sharp glance at her partner. Bowing, she added, "We couldn't have done this without you."

Too true. He and Asuna would've had a much harder time, over that month, without the support of the Dark Elves. Maybe more importantly, who knew when the players would sort out who was going to take over from Diavel, and get _Liberator_ into the sky.

_Someone needs to bring down the Skywall, and soon. We can't afford to lose momentum. But that means we'll have to…._ Kirito tried to hide his wince. He knew how stupid it was. He'd tried to keep his distance even so, and thought he'd succeeded.

"Would that we could finish bringing down the Skywall ourselves," Emlas said then, with a rueful shake of his head. "But the Administrator's magic is clever, if nothing else. A purely elven ship will not pierce it, even with the Guardian defeated. Though our bargain ends here, I must trust you with this last task, as well."

"Of course, Captain," Asuna said, with a respectful nod. "That's what we're here for, anyway." She smiled sheepishly. "I'm glad we helped you and Kizmel, but this _is_ our problem, too." The fencer turned another smile on the other Dark Elf. "We should be thanking _you_ for helping us."

"It's been an honor," Kizmel told, returning the smile. "And I would like to think our travels together may soothe the fears of others among my people."

Kirito swallowed, when the dusky girl's smile turned to him. _She's just an NPC. She can't be anything more than programming. She can't be _real._ …That's what I thought about Alice._

_I don't understand _anything_ anymore._

"Hm." Emlas' ears twitched, and he turned a sidelong look on Kizmel, but Kirito thought there might've been the smallest glint in his eye. "Perhaps so. Today does speak well for the Swordmasters, yet this is only the beginning…. Regardless." He lifted a case that had been sitting by his feet, and handed it over to Kirito. "As I said, our bargain is concluded. Here is your reward for your aid. I fear we've not much to spare, after the crash, but the jewels here should stand you in good stead when you reach Niian. I'm sure you, at least, are aware that you will be facing greater dangers than you have here."

Kirito shook himself, grateful for the distraction. "I remember, Captain." He took the case, brought up his menu, and tucked it into his inventory; he'd check its contents later. Right then, there was a chime in his ear, and a quick check of the Quest Log confirmed his assumption.

**[Aid Dark Elf Forces on the First Island Complete]**.

That was it, then. It'd been… fun, if he was going to be honest with himself. She'd made it all too easy to forget she was an NPC, and if her—different—view of things could make sharing accommodations with her and Asuna awkward, well, at least it helped him forget the danger they were in.

_Well, she _is_ an NPC,_ he reminded himself firmly. _Even if she wasn't, she's got her own job to do. And this was why I wanted to be alone in the first place, right? So that I'd never have this happen again. …Asuna will still be here, but at least with our own airship, I won't… risk any more._

_Besides. I don't want to drag anyone else into what I'm going to have to do. Alice, this whole impossible mess—it's my problem._

As _Moonshadow_'s engines began to quiet, the ship slowing as she approached a certain crevice in Einsla's mountains, Asuna shot him a quick, indecipherable look. He wasn't sure what it meant; after a month traveling with her, Kirito still didn't really understand his partner at all.

Then she was facing the elves again, giving a deep and formal bow. "Thank you for everything, Kizmel," she said softly. "I'm glad I met you."

Kirito didn't need the flicker of a glare she sent his way. Affecting a more Western bow—trying to hide his own feelings behind a rakish grin—he said, "Me, too, Kizmel. It's been fun." He hesitated. "…Maybe we'll meet again, on Niian or Sandoria."

It was possible, after all. The Elf War quest had gone completely off the rails, but though he'd never asked, he was pretty sure Kizmel's mission was still the same as in the beta. If it was, then sooner or later the other Keys would come up in the plot. _With her still alive, maybe it won't be generic elves this time around._

"Given that you saved my life, the night we met, I ought to be thanking _you,"_ Kizmel said, smiling warmly. "I had never known humans before that night. It is my honor to name the both of you as trusted comrades. That being the case…." She turned to Emlas. "Captain? If you would?"

_Huh?_

"Gladly. No offense to you, Dame Kizmel, but this voyage has been rather more than I bargained for." _Moonshadow_'s captain reached into his coat, his hand coming back out with an envelope. "Swordmasters. My ship's damage has not yet been made entirely good, and even when it has, my crew is shorthanded. Secret missions for the Queen are a bit beyond us now. I have here a letter vouching for you to the commander of our outpost on Niian. It's yours, if you will take on the task of ferrying Dame Kizmel on the next leg of her mission."

"Of course we will!" Asuna said instantly, almost bouncing in sudden excitement. "We'd be happy to!"

The Look she gave him was totally not fair. Especially since it was completely unnecessary. Numbly, eyes wide, Kirito accepted the envelope, and with it the quest update. Part of him _really_ didn't want to do this, he knew it was just going to hurt more in the end, but—

**[Escort Royal Guard to Niian Port]**.

"…We can do that, yeah," he said quietly. Turning to Kizmel, he couldn't help but smile shyly. "I guess it's not goodbye yet after all, huh?"

It was too late. After everything, he'd take the chance to stretch things out a little longer. To hold off the old hurt.

"Indeed not," the elf girl replied, returning the smile. "I'll be in your care a little longer—and I have no doubt I am in good hands." She turned to Emlas, raising one fist to her chest in salute. "Captain Emlas, it has been an honor. I am sorry for the difficulties my mission caused you and your ship—"

A loud _yip_ interrupted her, and a furry blur rushed onto the deck. The wolf Cavall, whom Kirito had almost forgotten about in the weeks his party had been working from Tolbana, darted over to them, tail wagging like an oversized dog.

Kizmel sighed, shaking her head, and knelt to rest a hand on Cavall's head. "You are as incorrigible as your former master, did you know that?" She looked back at Emlas. "My apologies, Captain, but as I believe your journey will be safer than ours from here, might I impose on you to take this beast with you? I'd not risk him before he can be returned to my sister, if it at all possible."

"That, I can do, Dame Kizmel." Kirito might almost have thought Emlas was chuckling, if she hadn't known him to be so stoic. "Even if he does eat more of the meat ration than half my crew…. I assure you, that obligation I will carry out without fail."

Kirito couldn't help but be relieved by that. Whatever oddities there were about Kizmel, Cavall was _definitely_ just a program—but he was still like a big, friendly dog. Even in a game, worrying about the wolf's safety would've been one more stress he really didn't need.

_Not to mention it'll be cramped enough on that airship just… with the three… of us…._ He glanced quickly at Kizmel, who was still smiling in fond exasperation. Then at Asuna, whose wide-eyed expression said she'd just come to the same realization he had. _Oh, man, that is going to be _so_ awkward. And I thought _Moonshadow_'s bunks were bad._

They'd work it out, though. And they were running behind schedule anyway. In moments, Asuna and Kizmel had gotten away from Cavall, joining Kirito at the deck's rail. He was already fastening his grapnel to it, preparatory to lowering the three of them into the tunnel below—anxious to _not_ think about what might be coming soon.

As Asuna gingerly took hold of his arm, obviously as uncomfortable as he was, Kirito turned back to Emlas. "_No in elenath hîlar nan hâd gîn," _he said, enunciating the foreign syllables as carefully as he could.

From the looks on both Emlas and Kizmel's faces, they hadn't expected that one, but they did recognize it. "The same to you, Swordmaster Kirito," Emlas said, after the barest hesitation. He gave a respectful nod. "Clear skies, Swordmasters. May we meet again one day."

Kirito nodded back, and stepped off _Moonshadow_'s rail. _Here we go,_ he thought, descending into the darkness, Asuna's nervous but firm hold reminding him he wasn't alone. _We're about to start the real game._

_And then… I have to find out what's really going on. This can't be real…._

* * *

_I still_ cannot _figure out what's going on in that head of his. How can I have spent this long as his partner and still be this clueless?_

Walking with Kirito and Kizmel down the tunnel leading to what had been their little secret for the past couple of weeks, Asuna was torn between excitement about what they were about to do, and a burning need to grab Kirito by the collar of his fancy new coat. Grab him by the neck, and _drag_ answers out of him. He'd dropped such a bombshell on them, and then…!

But there wasn't time, darn it. The first thing they needed to do was finish taking down the Skywall, preferably before word spread of just how the raid had ended. Morale was too important, when it was still the players' first victory.

_Get into the air, take down the Skywall, _then _interrogate him. …Besides, I can tell this isn't easy for him._

"This is where Aincrad really gets started," Kirito said, as they neared the entrance to cave at tunnel's end. His jocular tone belied what Asuna knew he had to still be feeling; still, she was pretty sure it wasn't completely fake, either. "There's a lot to see on the islands, but the airships are a Swordmaster's other half. Next to a sword, nothing matters more in this world."

"I admit, I'm looking forward to this myself," Kizmel mused. She and Asuna were barely a step behind the swordsman, walking into the light at the end of the tunnel. The elf girl promptly—carelessly, really—dropped the torch she'd been carrying onto the stone floor, its blue flame no longer needed. "As a member of the Pagoda Knights, the sky has never been my purview. Airships have never been more than a means to an end, for me. Even if it's only a little while, I'll be looking at it through different eyes, this time."

"At least you're used to airships being around, Kizmel," Asuna said absently, taking in the sight before them. "We do have flying machines where we come from, but… nothing like this." The zeppelins of a century before came close, maybe. She doubted they were anything like what sat in the cavern deep under Einsla's mountains. "And she's all ours, huh?"

"You've certainly earned it," Kizmel told her, smiling. "After all your help, this was the least we could do for you."

As with every visit they'd made, the strange, mottled gray stone of the walls and ceiling stood out, and there were still plenty of petrified trees strewn throughout the cavern. Now, though, the shape by the far edge was in far better shape than when they'd first come. The vines had been cleared away, the hull carefully patched, the gossamer webbing made whole.

Built of the same dark wood as _Moonshadow_, not the steel of _Liberator_, the airship was much smaller than Captain Emlas' pride and joy. Small, lean, with nothing atop the deck save a pilothouse at the stern; rather than the magical thrusters of most ships Asuna had so far seen, this one had two propellers on the stern, and wide, web-like "wing-sails" on the flanks.

Kizmel had told them the ship was an ancient Dark Elf design. It was probably just as well, making her easier to repair from the poor shape in which they'd found her. Even that first day, though, before she knew anything about the practicalities, Asuna had thought the airship beautiful.

_And she's all ours. We don't have to rely on anyone else now, not even Captain Emlas. Today, we're free…._

Only when Kirito cleared his throat did Asuna realize she'd been standing there staring for at least a couple of minutes. When she turned a sheepish look on him, though, he only smiled shyly. "How about we get aboard? Kizmel, if you could help us with the core crystal…."

"But of course." The elf girl started to lead the way, only to pause, suddenly chuckling. "Ah, forgive me," she said, when the humans gave her confused looks. "It's just, even were it not for Captain Emlas asking you to ferry me, goodbyes would have been premature. After all, you still would've needed me for this, so at the least I could've seen you off." She turned to look back at the ship, an odd smile on her face. "This is better, though, I think…."

She didn't explain herself, instead making for the handholds set into the airship's hull and quickly climbing aboard. Asuna and Kirito quickly followed after—Asuna motioning Kirito to go first with a pointed look—and soon they were all atop the deck. Then they were into the pilothouse, and down the steep stairs into the airship's interior.

_Oh, this is going to be _so _awkward. If we hadn't spent so long in _Moonshadow_'s bunks and then that farmhouse… and even those had a _little _more space!_

This airship's interior had exactly three compartments: a cargo hold in the bow, a tiny engine room in the stern, and sandwiched between them a cramped sleeping compartment. It didn't even have proper bunks, just places to hang glorified hammocks. Asuna thought they'd probably be pretty comfortable, but there definitely wasn't much privacy.

"What was this ship even _for?"_ she muttered, as they passed through to the engine room. "This is way too small to have been military, but that deck mount doesn't look civilian to me, either."

Kizmel chuckled, opening the engine room hatch. "I doubt even my own people know for sure, after all this time. I would suspect, personally, that this was once the private fishing vessel of a nobleman."

Asuna stared at her. Kirito blinked, looking torn between disbelief and laughter. "You think this was a _fishing boat?"_ he said carefully. "With that cannon mount?"

"Oh, indeed." Kizmel smiled ruefully. "I believe the nobility has an important place in our society, but in my time as a knight I've certainly seen their… eccentricities. A nobleman who wishes to indulge his hobbies privately—perhaps with, ah, 'company' he should not strictly be keeping? This would not be the first small, fast ship with teeth I've seen so employed." She coughed. "Please do not ask for details, I know rather more about that particular scandal than I would like."

Kirito stared at her, before suddenly coughing, face turning bright red. The fencer put together "company", "private", and "scandal", and choked. "You—you don't mean—"

"At any rate, whatever this ship might once have hosted is no concern of ours," the elven knight said quickly, and stepped into the engine room. "Shall we?"

* * *

Though Kizmel and her human comrades had carefully restored the airship's hull and rigging in the two weeks since Emlas had first taken them to her, not everything had quite been made ready. The cannon mount on the deck remained empty, with no means on Einsla to replace the long-vanished weapon—and the core crystal remained dormant, capable of little more than keeping the ship, just barely, alive.

Even had Kirito or Asuna known how to awaken a crystal to begin with, a Dark Elf would've been needed for the Wood-aligned crystal at the center of this ship's engine room. Never having done so herself, nor having encountered such an archaic crystal, Kizmel hadn't wanted to take the chance before battling the first Barrier Guardian.

_Not when I suspect we will all be distracted at odd moments by the side effects. Minor they may likely be, but this would not have been a good time for _any _distraction._

The engine room was small and simple, bearing little more than the core crystal's mounting, access hatches to the ship's propellers, and pipelines from the crystal mount to the ship's systems. The crystal itself was oddly simple to Kizmel's eyes, looking more akin to a large, dark emerald diamond than the many-spiked shapes of more modern airship cores. That, at least, made it simpler to lay hands upon it.

Even so, as Kirito and Asuna placed their hands on two sides, the way Kizmel had instructed the last time they'd come to the ship, she found herself hesitating. _Do I… really have the right to do this? Betrayed as we were by Kayaba, they're innocent of his crimes. If I continue on this path, am I any better than he?_

"Kizmel?" Asuna said softly. "Is something wrong?"

The elf girl started, looking up to find her comrades both looking at her in concern. "It's nothing, Asuna," she said, shaking her head. "Merely a passing thought—"

Kirito cleared his throat, interrupting her. "I'm not really good with people, Kizmel," he said. "But even I know when somebody says, 'It's nothing', it's not nothing."

She looked back at him a moment, before letting her shoulders slump. "Heh. Something our peoples have in common, then. And if even _you_ can see it…." Taking a deep breath, Kizmel faced the two young humans squarely. "I realize that the two of you believe this world to be a simple construct, not a medium between worlds. That you are not even certain that I am real." And that, she was beginning to find, caused her no small pang, however understandable it was. "But I feel I must warn you nonetheless. By joining me in this, you will be drawn that much deeper in this world's spell. It may be a small thing, yet someday you may find it makes it that much harder for you to return to your own world."

Neither of them believed in magic. Not really. Her warning would probably fall on deaf ears. But she still had to try—however little she truly wanted to. _Kirito may even believe me. Whatever strange tie he has to an Integrity Knight, this is not his first experience with Aincrad._

There was a long pause, Kirito and Asuna looking back at Kizmel, and then at each other. Finally, though, Asuna smiled. "Kizmel," she said gently. "Even if that's true, do you think we really have a choice? If we're ever going to escape at all, we have to move on from Einsla. We need an airship."

"You _could_ buy a human ship, though," Kizmel pointed out. "Those in Origia doubtless already have awakened core crystals."

"I dunno, I think this one suits us better," Kirito retorted. "If we're going to use what I know of Aincrad, we're better off with a Dark Elf ship anyway." He shrugged. "Maybe it's a risk, but doing it the other way is risking our lives that much more."

That was an incredibly flimsy argument. She almost pointed it out, too, but he continued before she could.

"Besides… I have something I need to do here, anyway. This won't be any riskier than that."

"You're going to explain that later," Asuna said sharply, before turning back to Kizmel. "But he's still right. Whatever happens, we won't regret it." She reached over to touch the elf girl's hand. "Come on. Let's do this."

_Brave humans. Or perhaps foolish—but in their position, who can say what is wise, and what is foolish?_ "Very well, then," Kizmel said, shaking her head with a chuckle that surprised even herself. "Let's begin. I warn you, though, this is likely to feel… strange. And don't be alarmed if you feel things not of your own body."

Ah. _That_ got a wary look from them. But they'd made their choice clear, so she saw no more reason to hesitate. _Much._ With another deep breath, she gripped the core crystal, felt for the faint sense of magic that remained sleeping within it, and focused.

* * *

For all his beta knowledge, Kirito had no idea what to expect from "awakening" a core crystal. As Kizmel had pointed out, airships for sale in Origia were already fully functional. Considering how expensive they were, he'd never taken the time to buy one of his own anyway, preferring to cadge rides and move ahead as quickly as possible.

He'd guessed the process would be just a light show, possibly with—given Kizmel's warning—a brief hit to his HP. Since _SAO_ didn't have magic or attendant MP mechanics, that seemed the most logical way it would handle player involvement in awakening the crystal.

Kirito had no idea how to even describe what happened instead. As Kizmel murmured words beyond his knowledge of Sindarin, and the darkened crystal began to light up, he felt… something. Like something was being pulled out of him, leaving him strangely cold—while at the same time, something warm flowed back from the crystal, filling the chill void. Along with the sensation of flowing heat and cold, there was the oddest tickle at the edges of his mind, and a subliminal beat.

_No,_ he realized, closing his eyes to focus on the sensation. _Two beats. …Heartbeats._ His own was strangely loud his ears as it was; he could tell these were separate. One beat in a rhythm not too different from his own, fast and anxious. The other, slow, calm, and deep.

_Asuna,_ Kirito realized, opening his eyes again to find his partner staring at him, face tinted shades of green by the coruscating glow flaring up from the crystal. _One of those is Asuna's. The other—_

Kizmel's eyes were still closed, the elf girl still lost in awakening the airship's core. Somehow, though, he felt like he could see straight through her armor to her heart, and knew the other pulse was hers.

He knew _SAO_ emulated the players' real heartbeats, the only sensation that made it through from the real world. It wasn't too surprising it could share that feeling between players, or even that it could simulate and share an NPC's pulse the same way. He'd never imagined there would be any reason for the system to do so, but it certainly made technical sense.

What really spooked Kirito was that he could feel his pulse, and Asuna's, deepen and slow to match Kizmel's. _I know the NerveGear has control over nerve impulses, but this—what is it doing?!_

Before he could fully panic, the core crystal's glow steadied. As emerald light began to flow out from it into the pipelines leading out of the room, the strange feeling of warmth and cold flowing in and out of him subsided. The unnerving _awareness_ he'd had of both his comrades—and their heartbeats—faded along with it.

Kirito felt strangely lonely in its wake.

"What… what just happened?" Asuna got out, hands falling away from the crystal. "I—that was—I don't even know what I just felt…."

Letting out a deep sigh, Kizmel seemed to slump back from the crystal herself. "There is… an exchange of energies," she said, slowly and softly. "Crystals of Iron and Steel, as favored by human shipwrights, are given strength by external sources, or so I'm told. Those of the Dark Elves, which sustain the very lives of their ships, require something more." The elf girl seemed to gather herself, eyes finally opening. "Forgive me. I've little idea how it would affect humans, and even among my people, even with newer crystals, it is said to be a very personal experience. With one as old as this—truthfully, I was afraid it would take more out of us than this."

Meaning it could've knocked them flat right before the boss fight. _Oof. No wonder she didn't want to risk it until after Illfang. But… what _was _that? Even in the dreams, I never felt anything like that. Well… except once. And that was dark. This was…._

Kirito shivered, and tried not to notice Asuna's faint blush. He didn't really want to think that what they'd just done had felt _good._ "Will there be any lasting effects?" he asked, trying to keep his mind—and the subject—on the practical.

Kizmel hesitated. "With a modern crystal, in the true Aincrad, among other elves? I would say not. With an ancient core, awakened within the spell of this transitory world, with humans? I fear we're breaking new ground." She coughed into one hand. "If we've recovered this well, however, I believe it's safe to say we'll not be harmed by it. And I believe we still have a job to do. Shall we?"

Without waiting for an answer, she turned in a swish of her cloak to leave the engine room. As she made for the stairs, Asuna leaned in close to Kirito. "Are you _sure_ there was nothing like this in the beta?" she hissed.

"Not that I ever ran into," he whispered back. "I could ask Argo, though, if anyone would know it'd be her."

"Urk. …Later." The fencer pulled away, following after Kizmel. "First, _you_ owe us answers, anyway!"

"…Yeah. I guess I do." Shaking his head, Kirito brought up the rear, and deliberately pushed what had just happened out of his mind. One impossibility at a time—and in the meantime, he had to admit he was just dying to see Asuna's reaction when they got the ship airborne.

* * *

Asuna supposed it made sense that their new ship's pilothouse was a lot smaller and simpler than _Moonshadow_'s bridge. The not-glass windows set in all four bulkheads were similar, as was the ship's wheel, but that was about it. To the left of the wheel, there was a pedestal with controls for the throttle and wing-sails; to the right, one that governed the ship's more esoteric functions, some of which even Kizmel hadn't been able to identify.

If she had to guess, they were positioned to be reachable from the helm, but intended for a crew of three. Not that she knew much about airship design—yet.

For now, Asuna sat in the right-hand chair, keeping an eye on the one part she did fully understand—a status display for the core crystal. Kizmel took the other chair, ready to bring the lift field and engines to life. Kirito stood between them, hands on the wheel, and not looking quite as confident as he probably wanted them to think.

"So… why am I the only one who doesn't get a chair?" the swordsman asked plaintively, giving the wheel a quick spin.

"Probably so that the person in charge of steering does not fall asleep on the job," Kizmel said dryly, smiling to soften the dig. "Come now. Isn't it time we began?"

"…Right." He cleared his throat, clearly doing his best Emlas imitation. "Power to the lift field. Pull in the skids as soon as we're up."

"Power to the lift field," Kizmel repeated, easing forward one of the levers. With a thrum, quieter than _Moonshadow_'s but still enough to be felt through the deck, the ship lifted from the stone floor—for the first time in centuries, Asuna supposed. "Everything seems steady."

"If I'm reading this right, the core is holding." That had taken a crash course in technical Sindarin, something Asuna had never supposed existed. Kayaba was thorough, she'd give him that much. "Pulling in the landing skids," she added, touching one of the other controls she more or less understood. "We're good to go, Kirito-kun."

"Okay, then." Kirito spun the wheel, turning the airship's bow toward the cavern's exit. "Easy on the throttle… launch _Moondancer!"_

Their very own airship, named partly in honor of the one that had helped them reach this point. With Kizmel gently pushing the throttle, the ship was out and into the sky at last.

_We're free. These are our wings, now. With a sword and a ship, we can go anywhere…._ Awe building inside her, Asuna pushed herself out of her chair to get a better look, at the sky before and above, at the clouds below. "Wow…." she breathed. "We're really doing it… we're really flying…."

"Yeah, we are." Despite the mood that had gripped him since the Integrity Knight appeared, Kirito was grinning. "Never had a ship of my own in the beta. Flying on our own like this is kinda cool—but we'd better get a bit higher, or we'll hit the Cloud Sea. That'd be a real short flight."

"Too true." Kizmel adjusted the wing-sails, and _Moondancer_'s bow arced up toward the faded gold still shimmering above. "That would be an embarrassing end."

Asuna glanced down at the roiling clouds. They never quite blanketed the sky below, leaving plenty of gaps—but she didn't think she was imagining the way they seemed to be gathered right underneath their ship. "The previews never talked about that much. I take it going too low is, um, bad?"

"The Cloud Sea is a barrier meant to prevent anyone in the Archipelago from reaching the surface world," Kirito said, turning _Moondancer_ to spiral up around Einsla. "Anything that gets caught in it? Poof. Those clouds basically dissolve anything they touch. …It's kinda cruel, honestly," he added, voice turning thoughtful. "It lets people see the ground is still there, but never lets anyone through. Even the Skywall is just a wall."

"Aincrad was not raised to the heavens by choice," Kizmel said quietly. "Like as not, giving glimpses of what once was, was itself intended as punishment." She shook her head. "But that is a dark tale of old. Today—Asuna, watch what lies above. I believe you'll enjoy what comes next."

The fencer obediently returned her attention to the sky, and to the island they were still circling. _Moondancer_ was just coming up over the Skywall Tower, close enough to see the shattered top. They were past too fast for her to see much, but it looked like the rest of the raid had left at some point. _No sign of _Liberator_, though,_ she thought. _Probably still fighting over her… oh, here we go._

Kirito was bringing _Moondancer_ around to the north, angling toward the place it had all begun. Before long they were passing over Origia, giving the players still huddled there a deliberate look. There was no way to talk to them from the air, no way to see how those scared players might react—but Asuna understood why Kirito did it anyway. Everyone needed to see them, at least for a moment: even if the rest of the raid was still squabbling, people would know the Skywall was about to come down.

_It's time._

Kizmel had opened the throttle further, and leveled the wing-sails. Now they were soaring straight toward the next island, _Moondancer_'s bow closing in on the Skywall itself. Closer and closer, the faded honeycomb wall came, until it was on them, and the ship touched it—

The Skywall shattered, golden shards scattering like a dying monster as _Moondancer_ broke through. The sky that had always been tinted was suddenly clear, and Asuna had her first sight of Aincrad's true sky.

Aincrad's sun was low in the sky, yet still high enough for her to see it was just a little _off_ from the real one. Seeing that subtle difference was enough to pull her out her chair, out onto the deck, to see more. To see everything with her own eyes, everything she'd entered _Sword Art Online_ to see.

In the distance, the Skywall still covered most of the Aincrad Archipelago in a golden cage. Nearer, thought, Niian was as free as Einsla—and above, Asuna could see some smaller islands, glowing in the evening sun. One of them even had a grand waterfall, cascading down to a lake on the western edge of the Second Island.

"The Skyfalls," Kizmel said softly, stepping out onto the deck herself. Asuna glanced quickly back at the elf girl, to see a small, bittersweet smile on her face. "Tilnel and I visited there once, long ago, when we were but children."

"…How does it not run out of water?"

Kizmel chuckled. "Would you believe me if I said 'magic'? …Perhaps, if we've the time to spare, I can show you. It's quite the sight up close, I can assure you. Even for those of us born to Aincrad's skies, seeing salmon ascending the Skyfalls is quite remarkable to watch."

Asuna could believe it. And somehow, she was sure there really was an explanation besides just "magic"; Kayaba was nothing if not thorough. Thorough enough that she could see flocks of odd birds in the distance—and not so distant, as a flock of what looked for all the world like turquoise seagulls suddenly flew past _Moondancer_, arcing ahead of the ship toward Niian.

"Gullwings." She started, only then realizing Kirito had walked up to her other side. "They're migratory. Usually the Skywall lets birds through, but if the Administrator strengthened it when we arrived, they were probably stuck, too." He chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "I guess they're in a hurry?"

"And we aren't?" Asuna raised an eyebrow, pointedly glancing back at the pilothouse. "Shouldn't you be steering the ship?" _And… now that I think about it, we're not really moving anymore, are we?_

"We're parked," he assured her. "Well, as parked as we can get out here, if we have to spend the night between islands we're better off mooring at one of the rogues…. Anyway! Do you want a couple of guides, or not?"

Half of her bristled at the suggestion she was a tourist. The other half couldn't really argue the point, and as overwhelmed as she was by the view, that half won out. "Well, fine," she huffed. She pointed toward the north, and a winged shape that was just coming into view from beyond Niian. "What the heck is _that?"_

Big, that was for sure, if she could see it at all from so far out. It was hard to tell by the light of the setting sun, but Asuna thought it was long, bulbous, and with great big, shimmering wings to match. In fact, it almost looked like—

"Doomwhale," Kizmel mused, stepping farther forward to get a better view. "Oh, my. They don't usually come this far out in the Archipelago. I wonder if the Administrator disturbed this one?"

"Doomwhale," Asuna repeated flatly. Resisting a sudden urge to hurry belowdecks—or to drag Kirito to the pilothouse and get them moving again—she turned a sharp look on her companions instead. "Why do I not like the sound of that?"

"We should be fine," Kirito said absently, shading his eyes and squinting at the huge flyer. "A lot of people think doomwhales are bad luck, but the older stories say that's only if you kill one. Kind of like an albatross—don't look at me like that," he added, aggrieved, when she gave him a Look. "I may not have read the poem, but games and stuff reference things like that."

"A poem? I'd like to hear more about it later." Kizmel drifted back to them. "That said, Kirito is right. Doomwhales are often assumed to prey on ships, given their large size and lack of obvious food sources. In truth, however, they seem to have some connection with the Cloud Sea…. Though they can be hazardous to simple navigation. We'd best moor at one of the rogues for tonight, and make for Niian in the morning. This one will likely have moved on by then."

Asuna found it more than a little disturbing how the two of them were practically calling a giant flying whale—with the adjective "doom" as part of its name, at that—harmless. _But they're the experts, I guess… and what in the world could _that _be?_

Far out above the northern edge of Niian, on another detached island—one of the "rogues", she supposed—was what looked for all the world to be a castle. Old, crumbling, and smallish, but even from that distance pretty obviously a castle. "Is that a dungeon?" she asked, squinting at the structure.

Kirito followed her gaze. "Eh? Oh… yeah, it is. There's a few on rogue islands. At least one small town sits on one, somewhere out around the Ninth Island. And there's a few rogues that have player residences. I remember in the beta those were supposed to be better for players with their own airships."

Huh. _That's something to think about… probably not anytime soon, though. We got the airship for free; I doubt we'll be so lucky with a port. In the meantime… what's that?_

Most things in Aincrad's sky were growing dimmer as the sun sank below the horizon. Even the doomwhale's wings were getting harder to see. Out beyond Niian, though, something seemed to be getting _brighter,_ taking on more definite form. It was hard to make out from that distance—Asuna made a mental note to find out if _SAO_ had telescopes, like old sailing ships—but she thought it was starting to look somehow familiar.

_No. Not "it". They. Those… they're ships. At least a dozen. They can't be players, not this soon, and Kizmel would've said if her people were likely to be out here right now—especially with so many._

"Guys?" Asuna finally said, lifting one arm to point. "What's that fleet out there?"

Kizmel, who'd still been carefully watching the doomwhale, raised her head to look. Kept looking, for several moments, the twitching of her long ears the only sign she hadn't suffered some kind of glitch. "That would be the Wild Hunt," she said finally, her level tone speaking to sudden, controlled tension. "I hardly expected to see _them_ out this way, either. They must have noticed the fall of the first Skywall."

To Asuna's left, Kirito had gone pale. "The Wild Hunt? That's real?"

"Oh, very. And with our luck, this is not merely a phantasm of Kayaba's, but the truth." Kizmel turned toward the pilothouse, suddenly all brisk motion. "I believe I spotted a Mistmoon cloth in the cargo hold. Kirito, I suggest you get the ship moving to the largest rogue island you can find, while Asuna and I prepare the cloth."

Kirito nodded quickly. "I'm on it. We don't want to get caught out in the open." He shuddered. "I'd rather face an Integrity Knight."

Asuna had heard of the Wild Hunt, but as she followed her companions back inside _Moondancer_, she suspected this one wasn't the same as what she'd read about. _Though it looks like _someone _knows more than the rest of us. I am so going to sit on him and Kizmel one of these days, and find out what's what here. Speaking of…._

Trailing Kizmel down belowdecks, she turned to look back at their helmsman. "Speaking of Integrity Knights, Kirito-kun—as soon as we're set for the night, _you_ have a story to finish."

* * *

It was fortunate, Kizmel reflected, that the Great Separation eons before had lifted more than just the one hundred great islands that had become the Aincrad Archipelago. Had they not been able to find one of the much smaller rogue islands so close, she was much afraid the night would've gone badly.

As it was, between mooring in the shadow of that rogue and draping a Mistmoon cloth—not so different from her own cloak—over _Moondancer_'s top, the still-odd but reassuring **[Safe Haven] **message had appeared in her vision. Even if the Wild Hunt scouring the nearby skies was real and not a figment of the world spell, she was fairly sure they would be as bound to the rules as she.

That was enough to let Kizmel relax, reclining on a blanket on _Moondancer_'s deck. Her two companions were likewise resting on bedding found in the airship's cargo hold, looking up to the night sky. The Mistmoon cloth guarded them from prying eyes, yet left both their mooring and the stars above in clear view from their side.

_I wonder what the two of them think of that sky? I can scarce imagine how I might feel, looking at constellations not of my own world. For that one surety of life to be so changed…._

It was also all too possible to see the ethereal airships of the Wild Hunt passing by, far closer than was comfortable. Not close enough to see the crews—for which Kizmel counted herself and her companions fortunate—but too close, all the same. She saw Kirito and Asuna both staring uneasily off to starboard, and realized they were probably even more unnerved than she.

_Well. We've other matters anyway._ "Kirito," Kizmel said, into the anxious silence that had fallen. "I believe you have a story to finish."

The youth jumped, jerking his gaze back to their own ship. "Eh?! Oh… right." For a moment, Kirito looked as if he wasn't sure that was really any better than the Wild Hunt. "Okay, then… where was I?"

"Alice Zuberg," Asuna said quietly, dragging her own eyes away from the spectral fleet. "Who she was, and what happened six years ago."

"Right." Kirito gathered his coat tighter against himself, against a chill that was likely in the mind as much as the sky. "So… like I told you, she was an herbalist. She was really, really good at it—but not as good as she wanted to be. What she really wanted was to rediscover some of the magic that was lost in the Great Separation. To be able to heal people with that."

"I can see how that would get attention," Kizmel mused, nodding slowly. "My sister is quite an accomplished herbalist herself, but she's never approached the abilities of an alchemist or mage of old… Asuna? Is something wrong?"

The fencer had paled, and was staring at Kirito with wide eyes. "In our world, that would be… um, bad," she said. "Kirito-kun… was she…?"

"No, no," he said, shaking his head. "No witch hunts or anything like that. The village was proud of what Alice could do, what she was trying to do. What happened… didn't have anything to do with that." He looked up to the sky, at the two moons clearly visibly through the cloth. "I told you we played together, back then. And she knew so much…. So, one day, she decided it was time to find out the truth. About me, I mean." Kirito's hands clenched on his coat, as he turned his gaze down to the oak deck. "It wasn't worth it. Not for me…."

Ah. Well, that certainly explained some of her human comrade's distress. Whatever had happened, he clearly blamed himself for it to some degree. Kizmel knew all too well how that felt, just as she knew the look in his eyes. She saw it in the mirror, often as not, since Kayaba's spell had ensnared them all.

"The well had been sealed up for years," Kirito was continuing, looking at the deck yet not seeming to really see it. "But we'd found another way into the caves, just outside the village. Alice led us back there that day, trying to find exactly where I'd come from. It took us most of the day, but we finally made it to the deepest cavern—and the gate."

Kizmel inhaled sharply. _Could that have been—?_

"Gate?" Asuna repeated, brows furrowing. "You… don't mean like a fence gate or anything, do you."

He snorted, a humorless smile flitting across his face. "No. This was a big circle set into the cave wall, inscribed with Sindarin text along the rim—I didn't know the language back then, so I can't tell you what it said. But within the circle, instead of another tunnel, there was a… a kind of blue cloud. Kind of like the Cloud Sea, but it didn't destroy things that touched it."

_A gate filled with clouds, bordered with writings in the language of my people. A golden circle, perhaps long-tarnished, yet somehow still functioning._ Kizmel could picture it in her mind's eye, Kirito's description filling in the details illustrations she'd seen had lacked. _Well. I suppose that would explain a great deal._

Kirito seemed to be hesitating again. She was beginning to suspect why. "A World Gate," she said aloud. "I'd no idea any still functioned in this era. This far out, on the farthest edge of the Archipelago, it must have slipped the Administrator's notice."

Kirito winced. Sighed. Seemed to gather himself—or perhaps he was just tired of the look Asuna was giving him. "Not anymore," he said bluntly. "Six years ago, Alice touched the gate. That's all she did. She touched it, and the clouds started to clear—and then there were bells." He shivered, casting a look back toward Einsla. "The same bells we heard on launch day, just before Kayaba yanked us back to Origia and broke everything." The youth swallowed. "I've heard those bells in my nightmares ever since. Just like, no matter how hard I try to forget, I still see the face that appeared in the ceiling, staring at us. Pronouncing that a taboo had been broken, and to prepare for judgment."

Asuna stared at him, face pale. "Judgment…?"

"The Senate," Kizmel murmured, nodding to herself. "So that's how you knew to ask, when the Integrity Knight appeared."

"It left an impression," he said, with a flickering ghost of a smile. It vanished quickly. "The three of us ran for it. Away from the gate, away from the face, hoping to get away from the scene of whatever crime we'd committed. …Not that it helped any. I don't know how, but by the time we got back to Rulid, he was already there. An Integrity Knight, in shining armor—demanding the village hand over Alice."

_And that would be how Kirito knows so much about the Integrity Knights, and the threat they pose._ The elf girl shivered. _The first time I caught sight of one, I was already a Knight. I can scarce imagine how someone so young might've felt, seeing their power—_

"I tried to stop it." Kirito was trembling; with a start, Kizmel realized it was as much remembered rage as fear. "I was just a kid without even a wooden sword, but I tried to stop it." He bared teeth in a snarl. "No one else did. Not the villagers, not Alice's _father,_ not even _him—!_ They knocked me down, _held_ me down, while that so-called 'Knight' took Alice away for _nothing—!"_

"Kirito-kun, that's enough!" Asuna lunged across the short distance, gripping his right arm with both hands. Kizmel found herself at his left, placing a more hesitant hand on his shoulder. This close, she could easily feel his hammering heart, echoing in her own chest.

_Don't let him linger on it._ "He took her," Kizmel said softly, pushing away her own anger at the Axiom Church's arrogance. "And then?"

For a long moment, Kirito was still, tense. Angry. Then, finally, he slumped, leaning against the railing—though neither girl quite let go of him. "The last thing I saw there was Alice's father—he was the village chief—telling me it was my fault, and I wasn't welcome in Rulid again. Ever.

"Next thing I knew, I was in my bed in Japan. And I never had the 'dreams' again."

_They closed the World Gate. Kirito's connection to the other world was stronger, so he was pulled back. That must've been the last Gate left, after Quinella's long hunt._ Kizmel slid closer to the youth—not crowding him, but close enough he might feel her. It was not the custom of her people, but after over a month trapped far from her own, she had some inkling of how much worse it must've been for him.

It was Asuna who broke the silence after that, long moments later. "I can't even imagine what that must've been like," she whispered, letting herself lean just a little closer. "…How did you not go crazy after that, Kirito-kun?"

"It, um, wasn't easy." Kirito coughed out a bitter chuckle. "Let's say the 'real' world hit me with something pretty bad at about the same time. The result, well… it was bad enough my family hauled me out to get checked out."

Kizmel let out a low breath of relief, hearing that her companion had at least gotten the help he'd obviously needed. _Well, clearly he did. The man I met a month ago was hardly broken. Frightened, confused, but not broken—Asuna?_

The fencer was wide-eyed, torn between surprise and horror. "How bad…? No, never mind. It's not my business." Noticing the look the elf was giving her, Asuna said, "Um, where we come from? Trauma's a _really_ personal thing. You don't look for help outside the family unless it's _really_ bad."

"Eh, it was and it wasn't," Kirito put in, something resembling genuine—if rueful—humor on his face now. "I probably would've been left to work through it on my own—might even have pulled it off—but my parents got word of a program looking for volunteers, with promises of being _very_ discreet, and…. Well, the details don't matter. I got help, and that was pretty much the end of it." The humor vanished again, and he looked back up to the twin moons. "Until the first previews of _Sword Art Online_ went public."

"And the world you had come to believe was a dream was right before your eyes." Kizmel nodded, ears twitching thoughtfully. "That explains much."

"Which makes _no_ sense," Asuna countered, shaking her head. Seeming confident Kirito wasn't going to lose control again, she scooted away, and stared down at the deck with a frown. "How would Kayaba even have _known?_ I mean, even if he somehow found out about your therapy, to copy it this closely—" She broke off abruptly, face flushing, and cast a look at Kizmel. "Um—I mean—"

Kizmel waved a hand, taking her own cue to give their comrade a little space. "You believe this world to be pure illusion, hopefully with the caveat that I at least am a more complex illusion. I hope to convince you there is more going on, but I can hardly expect you to accept that this soon. For now, I believe it will be easier for all of us if you accept I understand your worldview, and am not offended if you discuss matters in those terms." She couldn't help a smile, at the looks that brought her. "Please, continue."

"Um. Okay, then…." Kirito shook himself, his fingers finally letting his coat slip a little. "Honestly, I don't know either. That's one of the reasons I tried out for the beta. The only thing I can think of… and this still shouldn't be quite possible, but then _SAO_ is kind of more advanced than I thought it could be, too… is that it had something to do with my therapy."

"Which Asuna said should not have provided this level of detail," Kizmel reminded him.

"Yes… and no. I gave a pretty detailed description of the dreams, and the therapist was pretty good at asking just the right questions. Besides, in the dreams I never went much beyond Rulid, and I haven't been there in _SAO_." He hesitated. "And it wasn't just talking it over with someone. The program was a test of a prototype Full-dive device. This was practically the earliest trials of the NerveGear's predecessor. I don't remember the details, I was kind of messed up back then, but I think they were billing it as potential therapy for certain conditions, probably partly as another funding source."

"NerveGear doesn't scan dreams," Asuna said—but she was frowning. "…Does it?"

"No, but this wasn't NerveGear. Look, as much of a computer otaku as I was, even I couldn't get at the specs on those." Kirito sighed. "What I was _told_ was that it would show a virtual environment, with just enough flaws to help a user with 'disassociation issues' more properly recognize the difference between reality and hallucination. At the same time, it was supposed to be scanning the user's subconscious brain activity to better tailor the simulation. Or something like that." He shrugged. "I don't know exactly how it worked, NerveGear isn't quite the same thing. But it did its job, it sorted out the problems I was having, and that was all I cared about."

Oftentimes, in the past month, Kizmel had asked for clarification of one Swordmaster term or another. This time, she decided it was not worth the headache. The important thing, she thought, was that it had done for her comrade what it needed to. _And that it provides them with a possible answer. Now, I suppose, is too early for them to face the truth._

In any case, she had no desire to force Kirito to dwell on what were clearly painful memories. Better to move on, as quickly as they could.

Quietly clearing her throat, Kizmel said, "On the matter of Alice—I take it you have no idea, then, how she's come to be an Integrity Knight herself."

Kirito sighed. Pushing himself to his feet, he started pacing toward _Moondancer_'s bow. "No, I don't. I never knew that much about Integrity Knights, just that they were powerful 'heroes'. I don't know what goes into becoming one… and I don't know why she didn't recognize me." He turned on his heel, raising both hands in a shrug. "Maybe they did something to her. Maybe it's proof that this whole thing is one big coincidence. I… just don't know."

"Mm." More or less what she'd expected. Even the Royal Guard knew little of how Quinella's enforcers were chosen, and they doubtless had better sources than a small village on the farthest edge of the Archipelago. "I expect you'll be trying to find out, however."

"Well, yeah. Speaking of…." Kirito hesitated, looking away. "Guys. Digging into the Axiom Church's business, into the Integrity Knights themselves, is going to provoke them. Neither of you have anything to do with this, so when we get to Niian, we should probably—"

"Denied," Asuna said flatly, standing abruptly. Hands on her hips, directing a piercing amber glare at the black-clad youth, she went on, "You are _not_ going on a one-man crusade, Kirito-kun. You promised you'd teach me how to survive in this world, remember? You're not leaving me behind now."

"Indeed not." Kizmel rose as well, and though she contented herself with a single arched brow instead of a full glare, she was no less firm. "I know not how long our paths may run together, but we have a foe in common in the Axiom Church. As long as we travel together, your quest is mine, as well."

That was what it meant to be a Knight, after all. The safety of the Keys was her priority, yes, but she owed these two humans much. Her honor could not stand the thought of abandoning them to face such a perilous task alone, not when she had the leeway to lend her sword.

_Not that it's only a matter of honor,_ she thought, watching the silent struggle Kirito's face showed her. _These are two lonely souls—and I believe I like them._

Finally, Kirito slumped, smiling ruefully. "I'm not going to be able to talk either of you out of this, am I?"

"No, so don't waste time trying," Asuna told him bluntly, glare softening into a wry smile of her own. "Kirito-kun, you run a good game, but you're really not any match for girls, you know that?"

"Indeed he's not," Kizmel agreed, allowing herself a smirk. "And now that that is out of the way… well, there's perhaps one more issue we should address, before we put aside weighty matters for the night."

"Diavel, right? Don't look at me like that," Kirito added, exasperated. "It's the only thing we _haven't_ talked about yet…. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he found _SAO_'s version of the gate beneath Rulid Village. I don't know how he found out about it, but if he did, he probably thought it might work as some kind of log-out exploit."

"I'm guessing you don't," Asuna put in, "if you didn't look for it yourself."

Kizmel didn't really blame him for the disbelieving look he directed at the fencer. "After what happened in my dreams? I never went near Rulid in the beta, let alone now. I figured it'd trigger something like, well, what happened to Diavel." He turned to look off to port; the rogue to which they were moored blocked the view, but clearly he was thinking of Centoria Cathedral, at the Archipelago's center. "I can't tell you what's going to happen to him now, though. A player, _kidnapped_ by the system? I can tell you nothing like that ever happened in the beta, and it's not like there's any precedent for the death game at all."

More or less what the Knight had thought, then. She did have one dark suspicion herself, one which she thought her companions were simply choosing not to face—yet without evidence, she decided it wasn't worth it to trouble them now. There would, she was sure, be quite enough disquiet for them both, when sleep finally came.

_Heh. Not that I am likely to be spared, either. I never even crossed blades with her, and Alice's power was still enough to rattle my nerves. I doubt there's a single Knight in all the Kingdom who could face her alone._

"Well, then!" Kizmel said, deliberately raising her voice. "I believe that is enough gloom for the night. Whatever else may have happened today, we claimed a great victory. The first Barrier Guardian has fallen, and the Skywall with it. The Swordmasters have hope that they may someday escape this trap." She bent down, retrieving a bottle she'd found in _Moondancer_'s hold, and three cups along with. "Illfang fell to our blades, and whatever may have come after, not one life was lost."

Her companions each took a cup, and watched with some wariness as she poured. Asuna sniffed the result, clearly surprised. "…Is this wine?"

"Moontear wine, yes," Kizmel confirmed, setting the bottle back on the deck. "A specialty of the Dark Elves, and given how long this ship lay half-wrecked, probably centuries old." She smiled, with a deliberate edge of mischief. "Though it may, perhaps, be a bit strong for humans…."

The two glanced at each other, then at the wine, before determinedly lifting their glasses. "We'll see about that," Kirito told her, with the smile of one accepting a challenge.

_Much better._ Kizmel clinked her glass with theirs, and lifted it high. "To our victory, then—and to the victory we'll wrest from the Axiom Church, when we take back Sir Diavel. Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Together, they drank—and if Kirito and Asuna were left coughing after the first glass, Kizmel was pleased that it didn't stop them from asking for more.

_The question, of course, remains: how well can they hold their liquor?_

* * *

_"So, this is it,"_ the blonde girl whispered, staring up in awe at the roiling surface of the gate._ "This must be how you come here, Kirito."_ She glanced over her shoulder at him. _"But it doesn't look like it's working right."_ A quick smile. _"Maybe, if we…."_

For an instant, he saw someone else standing there, reaching up to the gate. A blue-haired knight, fingers almost touching the clouds—then in a flicker like static, it was the girl again, making contact with the stuff of the World Gate.

The bells rang, deep and horrible, tolling the end of his world.

_"You have broken the taboo,"_ the pale face in the cave ceiling intoned, voice reverberating throughout the whole cavern. _"Judgment will be rendered…."_

The girl was being wrapped in a chain, held tight to a dragon. Or maybe it was Diavel. Or Asuna. For a moment, it even looked like Kizmel, and he was struggling, screaming, demanding they _stop—_

_"You don't belong here,"_ the Knight said bluntly. _"Leave, boy. This is not your affair…."_

_"Don't worry, Kirito. Someday, I know, we'll be…."_

The girl was gone. Her father was staring down at him, bitter and angry. _"None of this would've happened if you hadn't been here. If you hadn't given up,"_ and his face shifted, becoming an old man with a shinai, looking at him in pure disappointment, _"if you'd kept up your training, this would not have happened. Can you truly lay this burden on her…?"_

_"You don't belong here."_

_They're right,_ he thought, cringing away from the one face, reaching futilely to strike at the other. _I never did, I failed them all—!_

"Wake up. Kirito. It is not real. Kirito, _wake up."_

Heart hammering in his chest, Kirito lunged upright—only to be held back by a soft, heavy weight, pressing him back down into his cot. "Wha—?! _Umf!"_

Only when the hand over his mouth kept him from crying out did he realize what was holding him down. Blinking, he found himself staring into violet eyes, glimmering strangely in the darkness. "Shh," Kizmel whispered, pulling her hand away. "It's all right… let's not wake Asuna, shall we? She needs her sleep—as do you."

Sinking back into his cot, muscles slowly relaxing, Kirito looked up at the elf girl in total confusion. She was stretched out on top of him, making him realize for the first time she was about as tall as he was. She was also wearing her usual nightgown, and the angle gave him a very good idea of what Dark Elves did—or didn't—wear to bed.

"Kizmel?" he blurted, pitching his voice for elven ears only, trying desperately not to stare down her gown. "Why are you in my bed?" He abruptly realized the fuzzy feeling in his head wasn't just from his nightmare, and blanched. "How much did I drink last night?"

Because only after a couple of glasses of Moontear wine had he and Asuna discovered that, unlike the beta test, the retail version of _SAO_ was somehow able to apply an intoxication debuff to players. Kirito _thought_ they'd stopped before it got worse than a light buzz. Loosened up, in a better mood than they'd been since Illfang's defeat, they'd gone belowdecks for the night. Asuna had taken one look at the bed occupying one corner of the cargo hold—very nice, and conspicuously big enough for three—and rejected it, so they'd hung cots in the sleeping cabin.

That had, Kirito thought, been the end of it. A quick glance to his left showed Asuna still bundled up in her cot, to all appearances sound asleep. But he was definitely still buzzed, and Kizmel was all the way under his blankets, wearing less than he thought was decent. He didn't _think_ it was even possible to go any further in _SAO_, but then in the beta it hadn't been possible to get drunk, either….

The elf girl only chuckled, though, a melodious sound that helped break him away from his nightmares. "I assure you, you were a perfect gentleman," she told him—though her smile had a playful edge he didn't quite trust. "No, the blame is all mine. I… had some suspicion your sleep would not peaceful tonight." Her voice softened. "Forgive me. Counseling is not my strong suit. Company was the only comfort I could think to give you."

Um. Kirito had _no_ idea what to say to that. Outside of Alice and his sister, he'd had basically no experience with girls in his life. Definitely none under life or death conditions. And absolutely none with a beautiful knight whose idea of breaking someone out of a nightmare was to sneak into their bed.

Even so, he could feel his racing heart slowing; he almost thought he could feel hers beating in time with it, despite the distance, as he had when they'd woken _Moondancer_'s core. "Thanks, Kizmel," he said finally, managing a smile. "I should be able to get back to sleep now." Not that he didn't like the position they were in, exactly, but that was kind of the problem. And he didn't want to think how Asuna would react if she woke up and noticed.

Instead of accepting his answer and returning to her own cot, though, Kizmel lightly shook her head, lilac hair swaying in the dim blue light. "Sleep, perhaps," she murmured. "But sleep well?" She gently lowered herself down, settling into the crook of his left arm. "That, Kirito, I frankly doubt."

Kirito's brain suffered an internal error, feeling the elf girl pressing soft curves against him. Rebooting didn't help much, seeing as she didn't seem interested in moving. Frantically, he tried to find a workaround. His social stats weren't specced for human girls; NPC elf girl behavior wasn't even mentioned in his bestiary.

Kizmel huffed, her breath brushing his neck and making his virtual skin tingle. One dusky hand snaked out from under the blankets, gripped his free arm, and pulled it over her back. "Humans," she muttered, so low he wasn't sure he heard anything at all. "…Do you want to talk about it?"

_No._ But he hadn't really been allowed to not talk about it that day. He was still buzzed from the wine. Still coming down off the nightmares. And, darn it, just having her cuddling like an overgrown house cat—an image he desperately latched onto, for his own sanity—made it hard to keep his mouth shut.

"There's not much to tell," he said softly, doing his best to relax despite his embarrassment. "I was just… remembering the day it all went wrong. That was about the same time something else went crazy on me in the 'real' world, so I tend to get those kinda mixed together in my nightmares." He shrugged, at least the one shoulder not pinned down. "After today, it's not surprising I'd be having those again."

"I should think not." Kizmel nodded into his shoulder. "Certainly I was tormented by old battles, the night the two of you met me." A long pause; he could hear her slow, even breathing, and wondered briefly if she was falling asleep. Then, "But there was more than merely old fears for you, wasn't there."

If he ever got out of _SAO_ alive, Kirito promised himself he was going to find some way to crack into the game's source code. There was no _way_ he was talking to just a glorified dialogue tree. Somehow Kayaba had obviously made the breakthrough all AI researchers sought, and he wanted to know how.

…He was also stalling, and he knew it. "I saw Diavel's face in my nightmares," he said, as casually as he could. "…And Asuna," he added reluctantly, when Kizmel raised her head enough to arch one brow at him. "And… well, you."

"Oh?" For the first time, the elf girl seemed genuinely taken aback. Then, slowly, she smiled, and let her head fall back. "I see…. Well, Kirito. If you fear for us so much, then I suggest you keep your promise to Asuna, and teach her everything you can. And me as well, as long as our paths are crossed."

"Eh?"

"A battle such as what the Swordmasters fought with the Kobold Lord is very different from war as my people know it. Had it been the Pagoda Knights, the Barrier Guardian would have been victorious." Kizmel's hand strayed up, resting over his heart. "The Integrity Knights are doubtless in the same position, Kirito. Use that advantage. Teach us to fight by this world's rules, and when next we meet, it will be the Axiom Church's minions who fall."

Kirito blinked. _Wait. She's saying…? Oh, man. If Kayaba was so thorough with his world-building, and the high-level AI are designed around real tactics, then…._

Ugh. He was too sleepy, and still too buzzed. But he was sure the answer was in there.

"Later, Kirito," Kizmel whispered to him, settling deeper into the cot. "Sleep now. Whatever the morning brings, I doubt it will be peaceful."

"Heh. Probably not…." Kirito stopped fighting his increasingly-heavy eyelids, sank into the cot, and shifted the arm still lying across to elf to rest lightly on her shoulder. "…Thanks, Kizmel."

Sleep came easy, this time, carrying him off even as he heard a soft chuckle. "My pleasure…."

* * *

Even with the ability to bypass the Skywalls, it was a long trip back to the center of the Aincrad Archipelago. If she did not wish to overstress her dragon—and she would never do that, not unless the straits were truly dire—she had to let her rest from time to time. Especially carrying double, and having to take the time to properly incapacitate her unwilling passenger when his limbs returned.

It was, thus, long after the twin moons had risen that Alice Synthesis Thirty finally swooped down toward Centoria Cathedral. An edifice rising high above the old Imperial Capital, it was a sight for sore eyes. Even the feel of the dormant Bifrost, its chained power rubbing against her sixth sense from the top of the Cathedral, was at least a familiar sensation.

_Even in this world, its sense remains the same. Everything else is close, yet never quite as it should be._

As Alice swept in close, one wall halfway up the Cathedral yawned open, forming into a perch onto which her dragon neatly landed. "Well done, Amayori," she whispered, patting her loyal steed's flank. "I know it was a long journey. Rest, for now."

Amayori crooned, bending low to let her dismount. She maintained the pose a moment longer, allowing Alice to also retrieve the comatose man she'd tied to the dragon's saddle.

_This man presumed to call himself a knight?_ Alice stared down at the blue-haired and -armored man in disdain. _He plays at war, nothing more. Even the warriors of the elves have more claim to the title than these "Swordmasters"._ She'd gone all the way to the First Island expecting something resembling a fight, when she'd received her orders. Finding a triple-amputee who wasn't even conscious had not exactly impressed her.

The fact that she'd been able to paralyze him after his limbs regenerated, without even a token fight, hadn't improved her assessment.

"Ah, you're back, Lady Alice! I trust the 'Swordmasters' gave you no trouble?"

She turned to see a tall young man with light purple hair, silver armor, and purple cape approaching. "Eldrie," she acknowledged, nodding to her fellow Knight. "You didn't have to wait for me."

"Someone needed to be here to wait for you," Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One replied, shaking his head. "Others had more important duties. I was tending Takiguri, so it was no trouble for me to remain." He nodded to his own dragon, nearly twin to hers.

As they were, the two being siblings. "In that case, thank you," she said, as the door on which she'd landed rumbled to a close. "I trust you've alerted others? I was given to understand the mission was of utmost importance."

"I sent word the moment I saw you coming in," he assured her. "The Commander himself should be here shortly." Eldrie looked down at the captured Swordmaster—"Diavel", Alice thought the others had called him. "Hmph. I would never question Her Excellency's orders, but was this truly worth sending an Integrity Knight?"

Paralyzed, comatose, weaponless, and trussed up like an animal meant for slaughter, if anything Diavel looked less impressive than when Alice had found him. "He _did_ break a taboo," she reminded Eldrie. "Even if his skills are no threat, he's clearly delved into forbidden knowledge."

"That he has—and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss a Swordmaster's skill, young one."

Both Knights turned to look down the polished stone hall, leading deeper into the Cathedral. After the voice, what was first obvious was the clopping of sandals, muffled by the carpet. Then their owner came into view, an older, scarred man with short, gray-blue hair. Unlike them, he was wearing a simple robe of a style Alice thought similar to that of some Swordmasters.

"Uncle," she said, bowing respectfully. "I've returned, with the criminal." She glanced again at the bound Diavel, frowning. "But… I don't understand. If they are such a danger, why take only him? As weakened as they were, I could have defeated them all."

"Probably—though they did kill Illfang without losing a single man." The man stopped next to the captive Swordmaster, looking down at him curiously. "You're very good, Alice, but I don't think you should be taking on so many Swordmasters until we've more a measure of what they can really do." He shrugged. "Besides, Her Excellency has a plan. It's not our business yet what it is."

"Of course, Uncle."

Though Alice couldn't help but be curious herself. The Human Empire had been stable since long before she'd been called as an Integrity Knight. With the shakeup caused by the sorcerer Kayaba Akihiko, and the invocation of the ancient summoning spell, she couldn't imagine why the Highest Administrator would choose to leave the Swordmasters at large unmolested.

More, what plan could there possibly be that might be kept even from Bercouli Synthesis One, Commander of the Integrity Knights?

_It's not my place to question Her Excellency's decisions,_ Alice reminded herself sternly. _And I have other matters to dwell on._

"What's to be done with him, Uncle?" she asked, shaking off her ruminations.

"Her Excellency wants to see this one right away. You, though, have earned your rest for tonight." Bercouli smiled, clapping a hand on her shoulder. Then he turned his attention to the other Knight. "Eldrie, give me a hand. Let's get this fellow where he's going."

"Of course, Lord Bercouli! Excuse me, Lady Alice." Eldrie quickly bowed to Alice, hoisted Diavel onto his shoulder like a sack, and headed off into the Cathedral.

"Heh. You taught him well, Alice." Bercouli patted her shoulder again, before walking leisurely in Eldrie's wake. "Now, get some rest! I mean it!"

An order she had every intention of obeying, after the long flight. First, though, she took the time to make sure Amayori was settled in comfortably, with plenty of fresh meat. The elves, even humanity at large, might favor airships. To an Integrity Knight, their dragon was their other half. She would not neglect hers, not even in this strange spell-world in which they were both but ghosts.

That gave Alice time to think, hopefully enough to work through everything before she tried to sleep. A month, she'd spent observing the Swordmasters, from the very day they'd been summoned to the transitory Aincrad. She'd seen their panic, when the sorcerer Kayaba gave his final instructions. A disorderly mob, killing some of their own in their rioting. Strange behavior, from a people who had supposedly been summoned as an army; perhaps Kayaba had revealed to them his treachery, but that hardly excused such wanton chaos.

A month, in which they'd done nothing to improve her opinion of them. Honestly, she wondered what the concern was, that twenty thousand _idiots_ were being drawn to Aincrad from another realm. It was plain Kayaba was up to something, and not dealing in good faith with the Axiom Church, yet what it was she could scarcely imagine.

Alice had assumed, when word came that a forbidden place beneath Rulid had been touched, that it had been a mere accident. Though orders to wait a few days more before acting had puzzled her, she hadn't thought it of any concern.

Finding Illfang, weak yet still a Barrier Guardian, defeated with no losses? In hindsight, she had to concede her "uncle" had something of a point. Perhaps not all Swordmasters were as weak as those she'd observed in Origia. Even Diavel had at least been alive, however crippled, when she arrived.

_Also…._

"Ah, you've returned. Did your mission go well, Alice?"

Startled from her thoughts, Alice realized she'd been brushing the same spot on Amayori's head for several minutes. Looking up, she met the new arrival's gaze coolly. "Well enough," she said. "A few foolhardy Swordmasters did try to intervene, but they were hardly a match for me."

"I'm sure they weren't." The blonde Integrity Knight, clad in blue armor, frowned. "How many of them survived?"

"None of them were killed," she said calmly, standing from where she'd crouched perhaps a bit too long. "I held back—and they proved a little more resilient than I expected." She waved a hand dismissively. "None of them were foolish enough to try again. Except…."

"Except?" he repeated, frowning. "Did something happen?"

"No, not really." Alice shook her head, long braid waving. "Just one Swordmaster brave enough to make a few rather bold statements. Empty bluster; he obviously knew better than to act." She turned to leave the dragon port. "Pardon me, Sir Eugeo. It's been a long day."

"Of course, Alice. Sleep well."

She didn't bother to look back. Eugeo Synthesis Thirty-Two had always been friendly to her since his calling—too friendly, really. He acted uncomfortably familiar with her, yet he always had a strange edge about him she'd never liked. The combination always made her uneasy around him, at best.

Certainly she was disinclined to discuss with him what was really on her mind. That one Swordmaster… his companions had been bold as well, yet his answer to her asking his identity had made him stand out. _"You don't know?"_

_Of course I don't. Why would I? And yet… something about that bothers me._ Walking the Cathedral's halls on her way to her quarters, Alice paused to look out a window at the stars. The Cathedral was the one place where the Skywall didn't color the view. _Diavel will lead them no more, and that man seemed too much the outcast to take up the mantle. Yet I can't help but think that wasn't the last I'll see of him._

_Kirito… I told you I'd remember the name, and I will. When next you catch Her Excellency's eye, I'll find your secret._

* * *

December 5th, 2032

* * *

_Moondancer_ skimmed a scant few meters above the Cloud Sea, close enough to make Asuna's stomach clench. Only with an effort did she stop herself from reminding Kirito to be careful; as new to piloting as he might've been, well, it wasn't like she knew much better.

_Still. This is _not _good for my nerves._ She glanced past the helm, where Kirito was turning the wheel with maybe a bit less confidence than he tried to project, to the young woman on the other side. "Are all Dark Elf ports down this low, Kizmel? Because I'm not sure my heart can take this."

Kizmel chuckled, easing back the throttle and adjusting the wing-sails a few degrees. "Oh, not all, Asuna. Einsla and Niian are quite unusual in that respect, honestly. Probably because we don't have much of a presence this far out, so what we do have is best kept hidden."

Somehow, that didn't reassure Asuna much. And there was no point in asking Kirito; if he hadn't known about any Dark Elf quests before the Third Island, he was going to be as a clueless here as he was at Einsla. _Just in and out here,_ she told herself, even as _Moondancer_ climbed toward a narrow gap in Niian's rocky underside. _We drop Kizmel off here, get our quest rewards, and head up to see what's going on with the rest of the raid group._

She hoped delivering Kizmel wouldn't be the end of things. She'd seen how Kirito had felt, when it looked like their partnership was over the day before, and felt much the same way.

In a world away from home, away from everything and everyone she'd ever known, Asuna wanted to hold onto the new bonds she'd begun to form. Even if those bonds were with a weird loner and lifelike NPC.

"Okay," Kirito announced, "we're here… almost. Kizmel, is there any signal you should be sending? I'd hate to be, y'know, shot down or something because they don't realize we're here on official business."

"Fair point," the elf girl granted. "Just a moment. Hold the ship here beyond the docks, and I will handle introductions." Kizmel stood, slipped out of the pilothouse, and went to the starboard railing. Taking off one gauntlet, she raised a hand high.

Asuna couldn't figure what that was supposed to accomplish. At least, not until she noticed a ring on Kizmel's finger, shining unnaturally bright. A light from within the cavern promptly blinked in response, and then Kizmel was coming back inside.

"That should suffice," she announced, pulling her gauntlet back on and settling back in at the throttle. "Take us in, Kirito. There is an empty cradle waiting for us."

"On it."

Seated at what she'd determined to be more or less a miscellaneous functions console, there wasn't much for Asuna to do on the way in. The core crystal was fine, and they were landing in a cradle, so there was no need for the skids. That left her free to watch, and see what a living Dark Elf port was like.

In basic form, it wasn't so different from the cavern where they'd found _Moondancer_ to begin with. Except instead of blank, mottled stone, the walls and ceiling were dark, oddly twinkling. Instead of the petrified remains of trees, there was an entire grove, weaving among the airship cradles and short stone buildings.

Instead of being completely abandoned, there were a handful of Dark Elves wandering about. Most of them were patrolling in what were obviously set patterns, while a couple were checking over a ship parked in the cradle next to the one they were approaching. Two of them, though—wearing uniforms similar to Captain Emlas', but more elaborate—stood by one of the stone buildings, watching _Moondancer_ cruise in. One of them had the distinctive gold question mark of an active quest over his head.

"The Portmaster," Kizmel remarked, following Asuna's gaze. "And his adjutant, if I'm not mistaken. They're likely expecting me, though I imagine they were anticipating _Moonshadow_ instead." She pulled the throttle back to idle, just as Kirito slid the ship into the cradle. "I believe our first priority should be to speak with them… hm? Where are they going?"

Now that _Moondancer_ was down, Asuna would've expected quest NPCs to wait for them. Instead, as Kizmel had noted, they were suddenly turning toward the far edge of the cavern, walking at a measured but brisk pace.

She exchanged a troubled look with Kirito. _Great. Another thing going off the rails._ "Should we follow them?"

"Probably," he said, sighing. "Sooner we find out what's going on, the better." He led the way out onto the deck—and stumbled, mid-step, at an odd ringing sound. "What the—oh, you pick _now,_ Argo?"

"Is something wrong?" Kizmel asked, beating Asuna to it.

"If you've got someone on your Friends List, you can do voice chat," he replied absently. He was on the move again, but reaching out to a menu interface at the same time. "I knew Argo would be getting in contact soon—surprised she didn't call last night, honestly—but man, this isn't a good time. …Yeah, Argo, I'm here. We just docked at Niian…."

It was probably just as well, Asuna thought, that the Rat _hadn't_ tried to call the previous night. They'd all needed the sleep, and she suspected they'd all had nightmares. She knew _she_ had—and she'd noticed Kizmel sneaking into Kirito's bed.

She hadn't really heard them, but she'd seen enough to recognize nothing indecent had happened. Still, she wasn't quite sure she felt about it. On the one hand, it was something she never would've dared do herself, for any number of reasons. On the other, she was glad Kirito had gotten the comfort he'd obviously needed, which she just wasn't equipped to provide.

On the gripping hand, to use an expression she'd once heard out of Argo, she'd felt an odd sense of longing. What exactly _that_ meant, she wasn't too sure she was ready to look at.

"Kirito may not care for the timing," Kizmel commented, as the two of them followed their comrade down to the port's stone floor, "but I for one think it's just as well. I'd rather the two of you not begin the liberation of this island without some idea of how the other Swordmasters are handling matters. If any have reached Niian at all."

Asuna found herself nodding, sparing a glance at Kirito. He was trying to keep his voice low, but his expressions spoke volumes. "You don't think the, um, Portmaster knows much?"

The Portmaster who was still heading for the far end of the port, she noticed—along with the guards she'd seen on the way in. _Something_ was definitely up.

"I have my doubts how much the Portmaster cares about my mission," Kizmel said ruefully. "I'd be much surprised if he was watching the local human towns at all. Much as it pains me to admit, Captain Emlas is far from alone in his assumptions about Men…. Truthfully, we'll be fortunate if the Portmaster even speaks your tongue."

"Oh." Asuna blinked. It hadn't even occurred to her that any NPCs might only speak Sindarin. _That'd be just like Kayaba, though, wouldn't it? Set up a quest so players would need a translator…. Kirito-kun might know the language, but I only ever read _The Hobbit _and the trilogy. _So _not my area._

The elven knight seemed to catch her concern, and smiled quickly. "Fear not, Asuna. I'll be here long enough to translate, if need be—and perhaps, if time allows, I might teach you some of our language."

"I think I'd like that," Asuna said honestly. "If we're going to be here for so long, that's something else I should know…. Kirito-kun?" The other player had lowered his hand from his ear, and was shaking his head. "What did Argo have to say?"

"Not much of use," Kirito said ruefully. "You know how she is—and something interrupted her before we were done, so she had to hang up. She does want to meet later, sell us the latest 'dirt'. And she wants to know where _we've_ been." He shuddered. "I'm kind of not looking forward to that meeting." Glancing ahead, to where the Dark Elves were gathering at the port's entrance, he frowned. "Looks like we might have a complication here. Better equip, Asuna."

"Right." While he brought up his menu to equip his Anneal Blade, Asuna swiped two fingers to bring up her own. First her Iron Rapier—she made a mental note to ask Kirito, and if necessary Argo, where she might get something better on the new island—and then, with a couple of extra strokes, the newer addition to her arsenal.

Firearms weren't something she knew much about. She'd only picked up Diavel's flintlock out of a desperate need to get the rest of the raid to _pay attention._ She'd held onto it, though, on the theory that it was stupid to pass up a potential advantage. Ammunition would be a problem until they got to a town with a proper shop—it seemed to reload automatically after a few hours, maybe as a mercy mechanic, but that was just two rounds—but it was still better than nothing.

_I _did _call myself a musketeer, the first day,_ Asuna thought, as the pistol materialized on her right hip._ I guess now I'll live up to it._

They were halfway across the port, through most of the trees, by the time they were all ready for whatever was coming. Kizmel glanced over at them, hearing the sound of equipped appearing, and shook her head with a slight smile. "The Swordmasters' base 'stats' seem to be about on par with a Dark Elf knight," she mused, "but I must say, your Mystic Scribing is clearly quite the advantage." She lifted her right hand, two fingers together. "To be able to carry so much, even communicate at long distances, just by such a simple action—"

Her fingers came down, and a menu sprang into existence into existence.

Humans and Dark Elf alike stared, nonplussed. "…I did not expect that," Kizmel said, after a long moment. "Kirito, Asuna? If I might ask your input—"

"To arms! The Minotaurs are massing for an attack!"

Impossible menu suddenly an afterthought, three swords were drawn in a massed scraping of metal on wood. "Minotaurs?" Asuna repeated sharply, even as the three of them rushed to join the Dark Elf defense of the port entrance. "Do I want to know what that means here?"

Kirito chuckled weakly. "Is this a bad time to mention the beta testers' nickname for Niian was the 'Hidden Cow Island'?"

"I can tell that's a reference to something, and I _will_ know what it is when this is over," she told him, eyes narrowing. "It also doesn't answer my question. What kind of monsters are 'Minotaurs' in _SAO_?"

"Well—"

A loud roar, and out of the tunnel ahead burst half a dozen tall, bull-headed monsters. The first one through came out swinging, and with a deep yelp two Dark Elf guards were sent flying in a single mace strike. Three other guards rallied to the defense, but in that time more of the burly mobs swarmed out and around.

That gave Asuna her first clear view of Aincrad's definition of "Minotaur". Tall, with bull heads crowned by huge horns. Legs that looked human, except with backward knees, and hooves for feet. Perfectly human torsos—very muscular chests, at that. She could tell, because all that _SAO_ Minotaurs wore was a simple loincloth and a pair of leather straps across the torso, leaving that impressive musculature in full view.

Face starting to burn, Asuna snapped her rapier into position for a Linear. "You?" she hissed at Kirito. "Are _impossible_. Warn me sooner, next time! And _these_ things—!"

She rushed forward, rapier blazing ahead of her companions, and struck the nearest Minotaur right in the ring holding its chest straps together. With a bellow that was half-roar, half a deep, lowing moo, it staggered back, tripping up one behind it.

"These things are pure _sexual harassment!"_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

* * *

So, yeah. Let's say my health issue has proved more difficult to fix than I expected—more precisely, scheduling to get it fixed—and leave it at that. I hope to get it deal with soon, but in the meantime I make no promises about update timing.

As to this chapter, I guess it ended up mostly one big mass of world-building—hopefully answering some of the big questions from the previous chapter was at least worth it. (Even if it did—by design, I'll admit—raise more questions than were answered.) Next chapter will also have a fair bit of world-building, but I intend for it to be done in the process of adventuring.

Speaking of, next up will be the exploration of the Second Island, detailing the disposition of the nascent clearing group after Team Kirito left, and finally some more on the Elf War quest. …And maybe some comedic shenanigans here and there; as I think I mentioned before, this fic is intended to take much of its tone from the _Progressive_ manga. Don't want things getting too dark, however heavy some of the plot will unavoidably be.

Next will also bring the characterization spotlight back to Asuna. I realized while writing this chapter that she was falling behind, especially with the reveals about Kirito's past—and considering her development was kind of the first part of the fic I even thought of, it's really time I fixed that.

Ah, side note for the shippers in the audience: don't read too much into Kizmel sneaking into Kirito's bed. This instance was purely platonic, and quite honestly the main reason Kizmel did it first was because I didn't think Asuna would have the self-confidence to take the initiative. Not saying it doesn't count as a teasing moment, but it should not be taken as an indication of where the fic's pairings are going. (This is still the "trusted comrades" stage, after all. The Niian arc is the "friendship forging" phase.)

Hm… about the only other thing I can think of to mention is that I'm open to suggestions for naming the material the elves use in place of glass. I don't know of any mythological equivalents off the top of my head, so if anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears.

Next up, I really do need to update _Monochrome Duet_; that one's been lying fallow too long. For what it's worth, health permitting, it should be fairly easy, but… well, we'll see. In the meantime, I hope this proved at least somewhat entertaining. Let me know if I've still got it, or if I'm completely off the mark, yeah? 'Til next time, comrades. _-Solid_


End file.
